


Core Issues: Season Two

by Nicolle



Series: Core Issues [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-05-30 13:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 72,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6426520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicolle/pseuds/Nicolle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is back to normal. Or so Gaster!Sans and Army!Frisk think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Night in Cairo

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. Gaster!Sans, our lovely narrator, belongs to Borurou. Shipworks is one of my AUs. This story is copyright to me.  
> This is a dual posting with FF.net.
> 
> 1\. Let's see if I can pull off a sequel as good as the original! I will post just like last time. When the first draft of episode three is done, ep 2 will go online. Yes. That means the second episode is already written.
> 
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.
> 
> 3\. If you've just happened upon this fic, please go back and read the original Core Issues. Otherwise, this is not going to make any sense. Just click my name and scroll to my stories.

Ep. 1 - Night in Cairo (As in the original, G!Sans is the narrator.)

Both Frisks dashed just ahead of me, running full bore down the narrow hallway as the massive stone ball rolled after us. We leaped a spike pit and rounded a corner to see our exit closing. A stone door was slowly sliding down to meet the floor. The three of us hit the dirt, sliding underneath just in time to avoid being crushed. We lay there on the ground attempting to catch our breathes as the stone ball crashed against the door, sending sand and dust in a puff around us.

"That *gasp* was *gasp* AWESOME!" 

"I told you *gasp* this place *gasp* was great," Frisk managed.

"I will never *gasp* doubt you again, Church."

It was still strange to hear someone call my girl by her last name. But if there was one thing that Frisk Ethan Cross did not do, it was call Frisk Emily Church by her name. It'd been six months since the removal of the A.I. from his head, and with each passing day he acted more and more like his alternate universe twin.

Cross sat up and pulled out the map Steam had given us back at the Shipworks. "According to this, we should be directly under Pharaoh Amenophis III's mortuary temple in the Necropolis."

Frisk leaned over to look at the map. "That means we only have a little further until we reach the treasure room."

"Do you think Steam and the kids are okay?" he asked.

Frisk waved off the question. "They're fine. They do stuff like this all the time." She stood and dusted off her pants. "Anyone need a hit of water?"

I shook my head. Cross held out his hand for his line to the water pack on Frisk's back, taking a couple long sips before handing it back. He stood and looked around at the open gallery of statues, each as brightly painted as the hieroglyphs on the walls. 

"You two ready?" I asked.

They both nodded and we crossed the gallery between two rows of statues of some pharaoh or other, watching carefully for traps. Half way through the gallery, the ground began to shake. Dozens of mummies in rotten wrappings crawled out of the earth and shambled toward us.

Frisk grabbed Cross' hand and my phalanges, pulling us into a run. "Here we go again!"

We ran across the gallery, dodging skeletal hands only to stop dead as the ground really started to shake. The gallery floor cracked open and a colossal mummy crawled out of the fissure.

"I call shenanigans! There is no way a mummy that big is possible," Cross said as he dodged the mummy's swing.

"This is the boss fight! It doesn't have to make sense!" Frisk responded. 

I whistled. "How about you two take care of him while I keep all the minions off our backs?" 

"Got it!" they both answered. 

I drew up a bone barrier between us and the army of mummies advancing from behind, giving me the ability to pick off the ones climbing up one by one.

Frisk ducked under the mummy's swing. Cross jumped, catching its wrist and climbed up the arm. Frisk shoved the weaker of the two legs and it fell to one knee. She jumped on it's hip and started climbing. Cross got up to the neck and grabbed a piece of cloth wrapping. Frisk grabbed one from the back. They both jumped and rolled when they hit the ground, coming to their feet and pulling on the wrappings with all their might. The mummy spun like a top, it's wrappings coming loose and hitting the floor. The giant inside the wrappings squeaked in embarrassment, covering itself with its hands before tripping, and falling back into the fissure. The room shook again and the Frisks had to grab a hold of each other not to fall as the fissure closed. 

The mummies surrounding us pushed on my barrier and I pushed back scattering them across the room. We ran through the doorway at the end of the gallery, making for the hallway that lead to the treasure room. The mummies gave chase, running en mass after us. I put a bone barrier up behind us, blocking the hallway as we came into a massive room filled cartoonishly full of gold, things covered in gold, and jewels.

Steam sat on a pile of treasure in the middle of the room in his debonair suit and top hat, the twins standing on either side of him. "*what took you so long?"

"No way. How did he beat us here?" Cross asked. Frisk shrugged at him.

Chara tossed a pink gem in one hand before holding it out to show us. "One Eye of Horus!"

"*if you hurry, you might be able to beat the Papyrus-es to the other room."

"That's a load of bull and you know it," I grumbled. "Those two puzzle masters are very likely back at the hotel, sipping tea, with Isis' diadem sitting on the table in front of them."

Steam shrugged. "very likely."

"Anything else on Gaster's list?" Steam's Frisk asked.

"Nope," my girl answered. "We're done. We can crash for the night at the hotel and head back to St. Canard in the morning."

"Sweet!" Chara grabbed his brother's arm. "Let's hit the market. We can find some cool stuff for Mom and Az."

"And by cool stuff for Mom and Az, you mean mostly Az."

Chara glared at his brother and punched him in the arm. "Shut up!"

"You just make it really obvious when you do stuff like that," Cross chuckled.

Chara huffed, shoulders drooping. "Let's just go back."

Steam put a hand on either of the twins shoulders while I collared both Frisks in front of me and we short cut back to the hotel on the other side of the Nile. As predicted, we found my brother and Steam's drinking tea with the diadem sitting on the table in front of them.

Frisk leaned over to kiss my brother's left temporal bone, earning a warm smile, before disappearing into her room. The twins quickly headed back out for the market. Cross picked up the diadem, looking it over. 

"So why exactly does Dr. Gaster want this and the Eye of Horus? Do they have magical properties?"

Steam shrugged. "*who knows? neither item has any sort of magic. i bet he doesn't want to pay someone to supply the gems for a new invention."

"And sending you to another hemisphere is a better option?"

"HE'S ASKED US TO COLLECT WEIRDER THINGS FOR STRANGER REASONS," Steam's brother supplied. 

"So you two aren't related to the doctor at all?"

"*nope. not even distantly. just two of his employees."

Cross looked at me. "Why are all the stories so different?"

I shrugged. "That's a question for Blue the next time you see him. I'm pretty sure the Prime Frisk knows the answer."

Cross gently set the diadem down before disappearing into the room he, Paps, and I shared.

"HE IS... NOT WHAT I EXPECTED," Steam's brother commented. 

"*i expected him to act more like chara. instead, he is very much like other frisks: curious, quiet, and a touch of sarcasm to his politeness."

"Yeah, but that sarcasm is always a Sans-es fault," I commented.

"AND LIKE OTHERS OF HIS VARIATION, VERY COMPETITIVE. EACH DAY THAT PASSES, HE IS MORE LIKE OUR FRISK," Paps said. 

"*two sides of the same coin?"

Paps shook his head. "TWO DIFFERENT COINS STRUCK FROM THE SAME METAL."

I snorted. "It's good way to describe all Frisks. The same metal, but different coins."

"I hear you talking about me," both Frisks said at the same time.

I chuckled. "And?"

"Jerk," my Frisk grumbled.

"What? No response, Cross?"

"Sorry. You just can't see me shrugging through the door." His head popped out. "Do you need a longer illusion of privacy or are you done?" 

I smirked. "We're good."

Both Frisk's came out in their off duty clothing, and settled in chairs facing the balcony and the view of the river. Frisk started knitting and Cross worked in his sketchbook.

"Have you decided?" she asked softly.

"No." His reply was just as soft. 

The twins showed up just as dinner was brought to the room and the evening was spent with the two telling stories of their exploits all over the globe fetching this or that item for Dr. Gaster. They passed out on top of each other, mid story. Steam and his brother tucked them in before excusing themselves for the night. Frisk kissed me on the mandible before going to her room.

Cross looked over at me. "Why don't you share the room with Church?"

I shook my head. "I'm all bones, Cross. That's not exactly comfortable for cuddling." I shifted a little, getting a bit more comfortable in the chair.

"Translation: neither of you sleep when you share a bed."

Paps chuckled and I glared at both of them. "No bed time story for you tonight."

Papyrus gave me a little pout.

"No worries, Papyrus. I've got you covered," Cross said. "I've got the bunny one you like in my bag. So long as you don't mind it being in French, I don't mind reading to you."

Paps smiled at him and stood. "I SHALL TAKE YOU UP ON YOUR GENEROUS OFFER." He laid his boney hand on top of my shoulder. "TRY NOT TO FALL ASLEEP OUT HERE."

I patted his phalanges. "I'll only be out here for a little while longer. I'm almost finished with the new issue of Communications in Mathematical Physics. Have a good night." I pulled my kindle out of the little Flying Ace Snoopy case Frisk had sewn for it. I snuffed the room's lamp and read by the light of the e-reader. It wasn't long before my eye sockets closed. 

The nagging feeling of being watched pulled me from sleep. There was movement in the room. I sat up and doing so bumped the power button on the kindle, casting light directly in my face.

A man screamed. "HE IS THE VERY VISION OF DEATH!!!"

I short cut across the room, shoving the speaker against the wall. My eye flared to life as I summoned an array of blue bones to light the room. Two others were in the room, covered head to toe in black. One had the box with the Diadem and the Eye in it under his arm. The other had Steam's Frisk tied up and thrown over his shoulder, limp. They both leaped from the balcony. I knocked out the man I had pinned and ran for the window. The one with the box was running street level for the interior of Cairo. The one with Frisk had taken to the rooftops running along the river front. I short cut to the roof ahead of him. 

The kidnapper bounced off my rib cage, but his surprise was only momentary. He threw Frisk at me and I caught the kid only to have my legs swept from under me. I summoned a circle of blue bones to surround the kidnapper and trap him while I set Frisk down. The kidnapper ran through the barrier, shaking off the damage from moving through blue. I turned the kidnapper blue, holding him still. I nudged the kiddo while I untied him.

"Wake up, Frisk."

"Frisk?" The kidnapper whispered, a distinctly feminine voice.

The kid sat up, rubbing his head. "Where am I? Where's Chara?"

"Chara?" another whisper.

"Back at the hotel." I pulled him to his feet. "Our kidnapper here tried to make off with you."

Frisk looked up at the kidnapper. "Why did you try to kidnap me?"

The kidnapper said nothing. 

"Likely to distract us from the Diadem and the Eye being stolen," I answered. "The other guy grabbed them and went in the opposite direction."

Frisk groaned. "Just great. Every time I want to get home and work my projects."

"Well, I'm sure we can get a lead on where to go from our 'friend' here." I offered Frisk my hand before grabbing a hold of the kidnapper and short cutting us back to the hotel. The shared living room was brightly lit when we landed. The man I'd knocked out was awake and sitting very nervously between my Frisk and Steam, whose eye glowed a bright green as he sipped his orange marmalade from a tea cup.

"*oh look. my frisk seems to be in order." Steam smiled at his seat mate. "*how fortunate for you."

The man squeaked. 

Chara punched his brother's arm. "What is it with you and the heavy sleeping?"

"Shut up, Chara! We were running around all day! I was tired!"

Cross was watching the kidnapper, still held by my magic. "Both of you back to bed," he said. "No worries. We won't leave you out of hunting the artifacts again."

"Oh come on!" Chara complained.

Steam gave Cross a confused look but shooed the twins along. When the door shut, Cross pulled the dark mask off of the kidnapper's face, revealing a woman in her thirties.

"*why did you kidnap frisk?"

"I have a better question. So did you think you'd ever see them again when you dropped them at the orphanage?" Cross asked.

Steam rushed over to the woman, looking at her. "*what makes you think she's the twins' mother?"

"She looked at Frisk and Chara with the same horrified expression a parent has when they realize they've unwittingly endangered their own children, and..." He pulled out his phone, scrolled quickly to a specific picture, and held it up next to her face. "She's a dead ringer for my mother."

"Show off," Frisk smiled. 

Cross shrugged and turned back to the woman. "The question stands."

She looked away, refusing to answer.

"Let's let that simmer on the back burner for a bit." Frisk put her arm around the man next to her. "So, my new friend, who are you working for?"

He smiled nervously and looked at the woman. Receiving no help, he shrugged. "No one? Just stealing the gems?"

"Oh wow. You are so bad at this," Cross groaned. "Try again. But this time, stop acting like an idiot."

"I don't know why the Vampire Illuminati wants them!"

"Wait. What?" 

Frisk cackled. "Those idiots again!"

"Again?!" Cross stared at her. "You're serious? Actual vampires and actual Illuminati?"

She nodded. "One of them even managed to bite me. C messed the guy up pretty bad before Bones killed him."

The man looked back and forth between Frisk and Cross. "You've killed a vampire? But, that's impossible!"

The woman looked at Frisk, suddenly interested. 

"Stake the lesser ones, cut the heads off the big guys." Frisk nodded toward me. "Bones' GBs took them out no problem."

Our two captives looked at each other.

"You make it sound easy," the man grumbled.

Cross pointed at the two. "Remember, Church. Normal people."

She shrugged. "All right. You two want away from the vampires, right?"

They both nodded. 

"Help us get the Diadem and the Eye back and we'll get rid of the vampires plaguing you. Deal?"

The man nodded emphatically. The woman looked suspicious, but assented.

"Great!" Frisk looked at the woman. "Are the twins your children?"

She looked away. "No."

Steam stood so to squarely have her attention. "Are you related to them?"

"No."

"Leave it," I said. "We need to sort out the Diadem and the Eye. Where have they been taken?"

"The Heliopolis Palace Hotel," the man said. 

Frisk stood. "Wake your brothers and grab the boys. The Papyrus' can keep an eye on our guests while the rest of us head out."

"What?!" The woman finally spoke. "You'd take the children into danger?!"

Frisk smiled at Cross. He rolled his eyes at her. Great. Just great. They were competing again.

"I'm not leaving them behind just to have them show up unannounced later in a dangerous situation. In any case, they're both seasoned adventurers and we did promise to bring them along," Frisk said. She knocked on the door to the twins' room. "Come on out, boys. It's time to go."

When no answer came, Frisk opened the door and looked inside. She gasped and ran into the room. She came back out with a snarl on her face and a paper crushed in her hand. "It seems the New Order of Vampire Illuminati have kidnapped the twins and will hand them over in exchange for the Diadem and the Eye."

"Two Vampire Illuminatis?" Cross groaned. "Seriously?" He huffed and shouldered his bag. "Let's go get the twins." He looked over at the woman. Her head hung from her neck, tears silently rolling down her face. Cross sighed. "We'll get them back. They'll be fine."

Steam smiled. "*provided they haven't gotten themselves out already. my frisk and chara are crafty." He banged on the door to his room. "*up and at 'em, papyrus! i need you to keep an eye socket on our guests." He opened the door to the room he shared with his brother. "*huh. he's gone."

"Likely after the twins." I looked in my shared room. "My Paps is gone as well." I checked my phone and saw that a text had come across while I had it on silent. "He took off after the Diadem and the Eye." I put my hands in my pockets. "It's your lucky day, Sans. You get to be lazy and baby sit."

Steam sat down next to the man and put his slippered feet up on the coffee table. "*sounds good to me."

"Where are we supposed to find the New Order of Vampire - I can't even say that with a straight face," Cross started.

"In front of the Sphinx. Give me a minute to change." Frisk hopped in her room and quick changed out of her bed clothes into the dark blue version of her uniform. "Let's go."

I withdrew my magic, letting go of the woman. I put an arm around my girl and Cross put his hand on my shoulder. I short cut us back across the Nile to the Giza plateau and up a bit on the Great Pyramid. 

Frisk pulled out her binoculars and had a look. "I see four people standing with the twins. It looks like they're both just about out of their bonds." She handed the binoculars to Cross.

He looked around. "There are two more hidden on the Sphinx itself and they're armed. I don't see anyone else. The full moon means we won't be able to approach without them seeing unless we teleport right on top of them."

Frisk shook her head. "They're all facing the river and expecting us to come from that direction. We can land directly behind the Sphinx and sneak up that way. If we can quietly take out the two look outs on the Sphinx, we'll be in a better position." She looked at him. "Knock out the one on the right. I'll get the one on the left." 

"Are they vampires or normal people?" Cross asked.

"They're wearing scarves. That's a good indication that they're bitten humans. We can knock them out." She looked to me. "If either of us messes up, just grab the twins, and get them back to the hotel. We'll meet you back there." 

"Got it. Are you both ready?"

They nodded and I short cut us to the shadows behind the Sphinx. Frisk and Cross snuck up on their targets. In the same swift motion, they clamped hands over mouths and put chloroform soaked handkerchiefs against noses. Both knelt on their left knees, gently bringing their targets to the ground. Leaning over in unison, they both pulled the magazines from the guns, and stuffed them into pockets on their jackets. 

As they made their way back to me, Frisk and Chara completely freed themselves. I could see them both counting under their breath. 

One.

Frisk got his feet underneath him in a crouch.

Two.

Chara pulled out a knife hidden in his sleeve.

Three!

Frisk jumped up and backward into his captor, slamming the top of his head into the man's chin. Chara turned and ran the knife against his captor's legs, hamstringing him. Frisk's captor bit the tip of his own tongue off from the impact, falling backwards. Chara's victim screamed, blood spraying across the sand as he fell. 

The ground shifted and several vampires rose out of the sand. 

The two that my girl and Cross had knocked out, stood up, turning into werewolves as they did. 

"Grab the boys and go!" Cross yelled as a werewolf grabbed him.

I short cut to the boys, collared them, and got them back to the hotel. Steam was having a cup of orange marmalade while his guests sat quietly. On seeing the boys, the relief in the woman's eyes was evident, but she did not move to touch them. I gave Steam a salute before heading back. 

Everyone was gone.

"C? You awake?"

C burst to life on my shoulder. "Of course I am!"

"What happened?"

"Frisk and Cross managed to take down one of the werewolves and three vampires before they were overwhelmed."

"Can you get me to them?"

C snorted. "Of course! Hold out your hand."

I held out my hand and C projected a hologram of the Sphinx with a glowing concealed door. 

"They entered there and proceeded underground." 

The hologram expanded, displaying a massive tomb complex. 

C jumped over to my hand. "They went through this hallway, but if you go up here, there is a ventilation shaft you'll be able to fit through that will put in right above where they're being held."

"Great. Let's go." I found the secret entrance and followed C's directions to the shaft. It was bigger than I though it would be. I looked into the room. Frisk and Cross were chained to one wall. 

"They don't have the Diadem or the Eye!" one of the human pawns whined.

"A minor set back. And one that won't matter tonight. A virgin sacrifice has presented herself for my great and illustrious master."

Frisk snorted. "Virgin? Really? Sorry. That's not gonna work for you."

"Church!" Cross mock chided.

"Okay, the details of my days as a Viper aside, it's not like Bones and I are completely celibate."

C giggled in my ear. "Just mostly."

"The third wheel can hush!" I hissed at him.

"Oh don't use me as an excuse!"

The vampire looked amused. "Well, I had assumed based on your attire that you were a lady. But then, you are the only woman roomed with several men. I suppose that should have been obvious that you were a whore."

Wait. What did he just say? My eye started glowing.

"Calm down, Sans," C whispered.

Cross looked more offended than Frisk. "That's completely out of line."

The vampire smirked. "Even if she isn't a virgin, she'll still make a nice meal for my ancient master when we awaken him from his centuries of slumber. He's rather fond of women in their prime."

Frisk rolled her eyes as the vampire and his pawn left. Once they were out of sight, both Frisks counted to ten...

And let themselves out of the chains holding them to the wall. 

"You two okay?" I asked. 

They looked up. "We're good," they both replied.

I dropped down into the room. "And will you two please stop doing the creepy twin thing?"

"S/He's copying me," they both said, pointing at each other.

I rubbed my nasal bone while C laughed. He transferred back over to Frisk. She held up one hand and got a high five from the hologram. 

"Okay. They have some ancient and probably really powerful vampire somewhere around here. Let's take care of it before it gets up and snacks on Cairo," Cross said. 

"C? Can you give us a layout of this place?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah." 

Frisk held out her hand and the tomb complex hologram appeared on it.

"The vampires are using the room over here as a base of operations." C lit up the room in question. "Beyond that room is a large chamber with a pretty big sarcophagus. I'm betting the big fangs is in there."

"So what do they need the Eye and the Diadem for?" I asked. "Did they say at all?"

"Something about them being items of power for the vampire they want to wake up," Cross answered.

"But neither have any magic to them, right?" Frisk looked at me.

I shook my skull. "Nothing. And I would know."

"You know," Cross began, "I haven't seen a single one of these guys actually use magic."

Frisk laughed. "That's actually funny!"

"What have we got for hostiles in this place, C?" I asked.

"Well, the vampires ate the two humans that the twins hurt and the werewolf Cross managed to take down. So that plus the vampires you iced earlier leaves you with one werewolf, two humans, and four vampires, not counting the big guy in the tomb."

"The vampires are fast," Cross said. "and the werewolf is super strong." He scratched the back of his head and then leaned in close to get a good look at the hologram. "The room they're all in only has two exits. The one to the sarcophagus and the one to the hall." He smiled at Frisk.

She smiled back. "We can flash bang them!" 

"We can totally flash bang them!"

Frisk pulled a flash grenade out of her jacket pocket. 

"And you jut had that on you?" I asked.

She smiled at me. "You know I'm always prepared." She looked at C. "Do any of them have any weapons on them?"

"None."

"Excellent. Here's the plan. Flash bang. While they're confused, Bones blasts the vampires. Cross gets the werewolf, and I'll take the two humans."

Cross and I both nodded. 

Before we could even get to the door, a large group of people went screaming down the hall for the target room. We watched as a vampire on vampire fight broke out.

"What am I even looking at?" C asked.

"WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT IS THE VAMPIRE ILLUMINATI FIGHTING THE NEW ORDER VAMPIRE ILLUMINATI," Paps answered. He and Steam's brother leaned against the wall outside the room. "PAPYRUS AND I CONVINCED THE ILLUMINATI THAT TONIGHT WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO ATTACK THE NEW ORDER 'HERETICS,' AS THEY CALL THEM." 

I looked between the two of them. "Convinced them? You both went after the Diadem and the Eye?" I pointed at Papyrus. "I thought you went after the twins."

"I COULD NOT SLEEP AND WAS OUT FOR A WALK WHEN I RAN INTO YOUR BROTHER CHASING DOWN THE VAMPIRE ILLUMINATI THIEF. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TWINS?"

"They were kidnapped by the New Order," Cross answered. "They're both back at the hotel now."

Frisk looked between the Papyrus-es. "So what about the Diadem and the Eye?" 

"AH YES. IT SEEMS THAT CHARA AND FRISK SWITCHED THE ORIGINALS WITH FAKES JUST AFTER DINNER. SO THEY ARE BACK AT THE HOTEL, SAFE AND SOUND," Steam's brother replied.

"SO NOW WE WAIT FOR THE DUST TO SETTLE AND STOP THE EVIL PLAN TO RESURRECT THE ANCIENT EVIL VAMPIRE," Paps said. 

The dust settled pretty quickly with a lot of staked vampires, the werewolf in pieces, and the two humans completely missing. The three remaining members of the Vampire Illuminati congratulated each other for surviving.

The first one whooped excitedly. "Now we can raise our ancient master and get all the credit!"

"If only we had a virgin to sacrifice to him," the second one moaned.

"Didn't the heretics say they found a virgin?" the third one asked.

Frisk facepalmed, and I patted her shoulder before sending bone strikes to stake all three, turning them to dust. 

We headed into the room with the sarcophagus and pushed the heavy lid off. The interior was completely empty. There wasn't even dust inside, indicating that anything had ever been there.

"Well. How about that?" Cross muttered. "They were fighting over nothing."

Paps put his arm around Papyrus' shoulders, both of them chuckling as they short cut back to the hotel. I sighed, putting an arm around Frisk while Cross put his hand on my shoulder for the short cut.

Back at the hotel, the twins were sleeping on top of each other on the love seat. The woman watched them over her tea cup. 

"Well," I began, "Neither of you have to worry about the Vampire Illuminati or the New Order of Vampire Illuminati. They took care of each other tonight."

The man looked lost. "Really? They're gone?"

"THE ONES IN THIS CITY ARE. SO LONG AS YOU DON'T GO NEAR OTHER VAMPIRES UNTIL THEIR BITE HEALS, YOU WILL BE FINE," Steam's brother informed them. "THE INFLUENCE ONLY LASTS SO LONG AS THE BITE DOES."

"Thank you!!!" The man stood and emphatically shook everyone's hand before running out the door.

Frisk turned to the woman. "Well?"

She glanced up at Frisk and back to the boys. "What kind of life do they have? Are they well cared for?"

Steam shrugged. "They are the adopted sons of the Dreemurr Royal Family, and they are both apprenticed to the genius who created the flying ships that now litter the skies. They are well loved and cared for by their adoptive parents and older sister." Steam looked into his cup of orange marmalade. "All monsters from the Underground owe those boys a huge debt of gratitude. They opened the barrier that sealed us beneath the earth. And for this, we monsters will always see that they have a very good life filled with a lot of friends and a lot of love."

The woman put down her tea cup. "Then I was never here." She stood, took one last look at the boys, and disappeared out the door.

Frisk leaned against me and I put an arm around her. 

"Do you think she'll come back?" she asked.

I shook my skull. "I don't know." 

She sighed. "I'm going back to bed. Try not to fall asleep out here again."

"But sleeping anywhere I am comes so naturally to me! I can do it with my eye sockets closed."

Cross tossed a pillow from the couch to Frisk, who smacked me in the face with it.


	2. Ep. 2 - Flower in the Lab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Underfell is a community driven work. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: 1) D and his brother are inspired by Roman-Kun's amazing work. 2) I have seen a bunch of different UT comics use the concepts presented here, usually in connection to Gaster, but I can't pinpoint a 'first' as it were.
> 
> 1\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence. This one has serious nightmare fuel and disturbing imagery. While it does not go passed the T rating, I did give myself and my beta nightmares just from proofing it.
> 
> 2\. Again: This one is a HORROR story. You are warned.

Ep. 2 - Flower in the Lab (Third and final warning: This episode is a HORROR story. You can skip this one and get enough fill in later.) 

It was a beautiful day up at the cabin. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. And the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill filled the air. Grace jerked on my sleeve and I leaned down toward her. I was still trying to figure out how someone as short as she was managed to produce a child as tall as Frisk.

"What, exactly, am I looking at?"

"Hot dog stacking."

"Hot dog stacking?"

I smirked. "A proud and venerable institution among Frisks."

"All right. I'll bite." Frisk's mom gestured to the picnic table where Frisk,Cross, and Red's kiddo sat while D stacked hot dogs on them. "Explain."

"Well, every Frisk, at some point during their journey runs into their Sans at a hot dog stand and we proceed to stack."

"You've stacked hot dogs on my daughter's head?"

"Her record is 30!" I smiled proudly.

"And I'm totally going to beat that record today!" Red's Frisk yelled, pink and peach curls bouncing. "This is my version of No Mercy!"

D laughed while his brother put his skull in his phalanges.

My girl smiled at her double. "I don't care if she beats me so long as I beat you, Cross."

"Bite me, Church."

"Cross? His last name is seriously Cross?" Grace chuckled. That's... almost cruel."

"Thank you for your support, Mrs. Church," Cross grumbled, the twenty-ninth hot dog coming to rest on his head.

I straightened back up. "I'm going to check on Red."

Grace waved me off, eyes still glued to the hot dog stacking. I went into the cabin and found Red poking at his work tablet.

"Isn't this supposed to be your day off?" I asked.

He frowned at the information in front of him. "*the second test of the collider failed and i still haven't figured out why. the first test run went off without a hitch, which is a fuckin' miracle, but to go down on the second from some random unknown factor? cruelty."

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I looked at it. A call from... "Hello, Daisy!"

"*FUCK YOU!" She hung up on me.

I chuckled.

Red snorted. "*ah! did the delicate flower of your variation hang up on you?"

"She's one of your variations as well."

"*and she has the mouth to prove it!" Red chortled.

My phone vibrated again and I accepted the call. "What's up?"

She huffed. "*Asshole. Stop calling me that. You know I hate it."

I bit back a giggle. "But you're the sweet blossom of our kind!"

"*Then pick a different flower," she gritted out. "Just don't call me Daisy."

"Okay, Sans. How about Iris?"

"*Fine. Are you done?"

I shrugged and realized she couldn't see it. Oh well. "I'm done for now."

She sighed. "*I need help and I want to keep it low key. As in, no Blue, no Red. No one. Just you."

"I reserve the right to call for help if we can't handle it."

"*Fine. Just get here."

I hung up and turned to Red. "Iris needs a hand with something."

Red smirked at the name change. 

"Can I trust you not to kill Cross while I'm gone?"

He frowned, a little miserable. "*both frisk and sugar puss asked me not to kill the piss ant and i, like a complete idiot, said i wouldn't." He sighed. "*i really don't like making promises." 

I patted him on the shoulder and headed out to the picnic table. The hot dog stacking was becoming epic in proportion, with perfect stillness from all three participants. "I got a call asking for a favor. I might be a while."

Frisk smiled and looked at me without moving her head. "I'll be here if you need me."

"Thanks, Babe." I squeezed her hand so as not to disrupt her stack before opening a rift and solving for Iris' Fell world. I touched down outside the police station in New Home. 

Iris leaned against the wall outside the doors, having a smoke. The vapors slid up and through the cracks in her skull. She wore the red sweater and black slacks reminiscent of a Fell world, and the bomber jacket associated with being our kind of Sans. Above the crimson blaster skull on her sleeves was embroidered POLICE. "*Hey Bones."

"Hey, Sans." I leaned against the building next to her. "So what's the deal?"

She let out a long breath. "*My Frisk finally made her way down here, but we can't open the barrier."

"The conditions haven't been met?"

Sans took a drag on her cigarette. "*As far as anyone knows, the conditions are met. But that isn't all. Something is really off with my Frisk."

"What do you mean?"

She snuffed out the smoke. "*The girl is happy that the barrier can't open. She says she likes it better down here. What kind of fucked up attitude is that?" She banged her skull back against the brick wall lightly. "*This kid is a very fast, very smooth talker. She can get into and out of whatever she wants, whenever she wants."

I frowned. "Has she hurt anyone?"

"*I've tracked her from one end of the Underground to the other. She hasn't hurt a single monster. One Level Of ViolencE and zero Execution Points. That isn't to say she doesn't have skill with her pocket knife."

"Want me to have a look top side?"

Sans sighed. "*If what the kid says is true and top side is awful, I think I can wait on having my heart broken like that."

I frowned. "What are the conditions to open the barrier here?"

"*Seven human souls and one monster soul."

"Where are the souls kept?"

"*The castle."

I straightened away from the wall. "Let's have a look."

"*Let me grab the kid." Sans opened the door and whistled. A twelve year old girl in a black and red striped sweater and black shorts came out. Flowey was wrapped around her shoulder and nestled into her neck, sleeping.

"Oh wow! Another Sans!"

I smiled. "Hey, kiddo. Call me Bones."

Frisk giggled behind her hands. "Cause you're a bag of bones?"

I pointed at her and winked with my left eye socket. "You got it!" I held out a boney hand. Sans picked up her Frisk and took my hand. I short cut us to the hallway outside the throne room.

"That was cool!" Frisk jumped down from Sans' arms. "Why don't you do that?"

Sans ruffled her hair. "*I do. Just not with other people." She turned to the throne room and went inside. The souls, in their vessels, were arranged on a table to the right of two thrones. Undyne stood guard over them.

"This is the guy that's gonna figure it out?" Undyne asked, jerking a thumb at me.

"Hopefully," I answered. "What am I allowed to do? Can I take a soul out of it's vessel or work with them still inside?"

Undyne eyed me suspiciously. "Leave them in."

"Can do." I crouched in front of the table so the souls were eye level. "Can any of you kids talk?"

I waited.

Nothing.

"Don't be shy."

I waited again.

Sans sighed while Undyne rolled her eyes.

"Come on!" Frisk shouted.

*I can.

Undyne and Sans both stared at the vessels. 

"No one else feels like talking?" I asked.

*The other two don't like to talk.

"Other two? There are six of you. What about the other three?"

*What other three?

I looked at Undyne. "I would like permission to actually handle the souls."

"One at a time only."

I nodded and opened the first vessel. I touched the soul and heard a soft giggle. I closed it up and moved onto the next. I got a whimper. The third gave me a sigh. The fourth... nothing. I tried the fifth. Nothing again. I touched the sixth. Nothing. I closed the last vessel and stood. "These three souls are fakes."

"WHAT?!"

I quickly jumped back from Undyne's angry swing at me. "Woah! Undyne! Calm down!" I ducked the next swing.

Sans turned her red and lifted her. "*Tone it down, Sushi Roll. What do you mean three of them are fake?"

I gestured to the three. "These aren't human souls. They look like constructs of the basics of human souls but they lack personality and Determination." I looked at them. "Those were made by someone."

Sans dropped Undyne. "*Who would do such a thing?"

I pointed at her. "Top of my suspect list would be the good Doctor."

She smiled and shrugged the way our kind did. "*Too bad we can't ask him." She looked at me seriously, eyes crimson. "We could check out his old records in the Lab."

Frisk helped Undyne stand up. 

"Alphys has Dr. Gaster's part of the Lab sealed off." Undyne looked at me. "Sorry," she grumbled.

I shrugged, hands in my pockets. "No worries. Why did Alphys seal off a part of the Lab?"

Undyne shook her head.

Sans sighed. "*I'll put cash money down that she's experimenting on her employees again."

Undyne rolled her eyes. "She's so bad about that."

I held out a hand. "Shall we?"

Sans took Frisk's hand. "*After we drop the kiddo off with my brother."

"Oh Come On!" Frisk yelled. "Why can't I go? I can handle myself." 

"*I am aware of that, and it worries me immensely, kid. Home with Papy you go."

The noise woke Flowey, who looked around bleary eyed. "Let's go home, Frisk. It's really late."

Frisk pouted as I short cut us back to Snowdin. Papyrus was not present during the accident that left his sister fused with Gaster and so was as normal as a Fell Papyrus could be. He stood taller and more imposing than Red's brother, but lacked some essential menace. But that could be because his Frisk was present. He took Frisk's hand and led her into the house while I short cut Sans to the Lab.

"*I'll handle this," Sans said as we entered the front door. 

Alphys was sitting with a bowl full of ramen noodles watching some violent anime or other on her computer, feet up on her desk.

"Hey, Alphys. We need to see Dr. Gaster's records."

Alphys took a sip of soda. "I blocked off that part of the Lab."

"*Why?"

Her eyes didn't even leave the screen. "I was done with it."

Sans sighed and rubbed her nasal bone. "*Done with it how?"

"The experiment I did in that part of the Lab is finished."

"*And so you boarded it up. That makes sense how?"

"So the experiment subjects don't get out. Why else would I board it up?"

I face palmed and clenched my jaw so as not to talk.

Sans nodded while she spoke. "*Okay. Be prepared to be covered with dust on our way out. Great. Just the way I want to walk home tonight." She grabbed Alphys by the front of her lab coat and lifted her up, the ramen spilling down the front of Alphys' dress. "*Go open it for us."

The lizard woman snorted indignantly. "Fine."

We followed Alphys down into the True Lab. And like all Fell versions of the Lab, it was greatly expanded. She took us to the third basement level and unlocked the door into the main area. She handed Sans the key.

"The lighting in this part hasn't been replaced in over a year, so grab flashlights from the security desk. Though I wouldn't use them too much. They'll attract attention. Lock up when you're done." She turned and left.

The door shut behind us.

"*Now you watch, Bones. Frisk will be here and she will pop up at an incredibly dangerous moment."

I looked at Sans. "She can teleport?"

"*Nope. She just knows where the danger is and runs right for it. She has absolutely no fear of monsters or the Underground."

I shook my skull.

The hallway to the security desk was empty and clean, lights still working properly. The laptop on the desk was dark, the battery having drained however long ago. I grabbed two flashlights from under the desk. We checked the batteries and headed deeper into the lab. If this was anything like Red's version of the lab, Ding's office would be straight ahead and to the right. The hallway was brightly lit but for one light that blinked erratically. We found Ding's office and opened the door. I tried the lights. Out.

Using the flashlights, we illuminated an office in shambles. The furniture was fine and in place, but the papers were everywhere. We started digging through them. 

A voice echoed through the hall. "I heard rats scurrying around! Which one of you tasty morsels has gotten free of your cage?" The screech of metal dragged across metal made me drop the papers in my hands to cover the holes to my ear canals.

Frisk was suddenly standing in front of the desk, Flowey looking furtively at the door. "We should hide. I saw that guy. He's seriously tall, seriously buff, naked, and covered in blood. I think he's been eating the other test subjects down here." She very quietly closed the office door before wedging herself into the cabinet space of Gaster's desk and shutting it. "Hurry up and hide!"

"We're boss monsters, Frisk."

"And he's human."

"*Human?" we said at the same time.

I pointed to the top of a bunch of cabinets. "Get up there and lay down flat. Keep your eyes dark."

"*What about you?"

I dropped my jacket and unbuckled my jeans. "Skeleton model." 

Sans crawled up on top of the cabinets while I tossed my clothes in one before dropping to the floor like a skeleton that'd been cut from the stand holding it up. I let my eye go black. 

The door opened and an overly large human male stepped into the room. The smell that came with him was awful. His eyes where small, black, and shifted from side to side, looking around the room. He opened each of the cabinets under Sans in turn, shutting each one noisily. Finding nothing, he ran the long, ichor stained knife in his hand along the metal of the cabinets. I tensed up, gritting my teeth against the noise. When it didn't get a reaction, he turned back to the door, leaving the office.

Sans' phone started ringing.

Fuck.

I stuck my foot out when the human turned around, tripping him. Frisk shot out of her hiding place while Sans rolled off the cabinets, dropping to the floor in a crouch. As the human stood, Sans' red eyes glowed. She turned the human red and moved to fling him from the room. 

Nothing.

I turned Sans and Frisk blue, pulling them after me as I dashed out the door.

"Three little piggies? Even if you're just bones, I can still suck the marrow out!"

I tried to short cut us back to the upper floors of the Lab.

Nothing. 

The human threw his long knife at us. I pulled the girls behind me and put up my right arm to block the knife. It broke through my ulna and lodged in my radius. Sans grabbed me by the rib cage and we ran further into the lab. Rounding a corner, we smacked into a barrier made of broken metal beds and mattresses. I could hear the human behind us. I turned the three of us blue and took us over the barrier. The human screamed in frustration and banged against the barrier, but it didn't budge. 

"Don't you worry, piggies. I'll find another way."

I sighed and leaned against the wall. Sans grabbed the knife in my arm and pulled it out. 

"*That was a fool thing to do," she grumbled.

"You're a one hit point wonder. I'm not."

"*Yeah, but unless you've got Monster Candy hidden in your ribs, you've got a useless arm."

"I've got something!" Frisk chirped. She pulled a Cinnamon Bunny out of her backpack and handed it to me. "I raided the kitchen before I left."

"*How did you even get down here?"

She pointed, indicating the other side of the barrier. "The elevator." She held up a key. "I traded Alphys some ramen for it. It won't take us back up though. The only way out is through the stairwell."

"*We can short cut back up," Sans said. 

I shook my skull. "Tried it. It didn't work. And your magic didn't work on the human. I'm pretty sure mine won't either. We'll need to get back to the stairs to get out and I'm not leaving without my jacket."

Sans crossed her arms over her chest. "*I'll buy you a new one."

"It's not the jacket," I said between bites of Bunny, "It's what's in the jacket that I'm not leaving behind."

She sighed. "*Okay. We get your jacket and we get out." Her phone rang again. "*SERIOUSLY?" Sans looked at it. "*oh." She quick texted back.

"So you want the jacket but don't care about the pants?" Frisk giggled.

I checked my ulna and radius. The bones had mended, but marks were left where I'd been struck. "I'm a bag of bones, kid. Nothing you don't see in elementary science. Thank you for the Bunny."

She smiled and shouldered her backpack. 

I looked to Sans. "Paps trying to tell you that Frisk is missing?"

"*yeah." She turned her phone to mute and climbed up the barrier to have a look. She hopped back down. "*Looks clear. We ready?"

I nodded and picked up Frisk. She climbed to the back of my rib cage, putting her arms around my neck and her feet resting on my ilium. I turned us blue and lifted us over the barrier. The area was silent but for Frisk's calm breathing. 

"Where's Flowey?" I whispered.

Frisk cupped her hand over the ear hole in my skull. "Inside my sweater," she whispered. 

We headed back toward Gaster's office and turned the corner. The human blocked our escape. 

"Hello, little piggies. It's dinner time."

I tossed Frisk to Sans and threw a punch meant to knock the human backward. He didn't even budge. 

He grabbed my right arm and lifted me up, looking at it. "I thought I broke this little piggy's arm." He squeezed, cracking through both bones before throwing me against the wall. I could hear my ribs cracking loudly in my ears.

I hissed in pain as I hit the floor. Sans turned me red and pulled me back toward her. She shoved Frisk down the hall and we ran deep into the lab, the human bounding after us. Sans scooped up Frisk as she ran, putting the child on her back. We rounded a corner, leaving the human's line of sight.

"*Keep your eyes open for some place to hide or loose this guy!"

"Found one!" Flowey yelled. Thick vines wrapped around us all and lifted us up into the ventilation system hidden in the drop ceiling. We stayed silent while the human searched the rooms under us. Eventually he wandered further away. 

Sans used Flowey's vines to set my ribs and arm back in place before letting me eat another Cinnamon Bunny. I could feel her magic flowing behind the food, healing the fractures. 

"*From here on out, let's avoid confrontations."

"Agreed."

Frisk touched my arm as Flowey pulled his vines away. "What did Alphys do down here?"

Sans frowned viciously. "*I don't know, but I intend to find out."

"How?" I asked. "We have no equipment, no weapons. The only reason we have food is because Frisk was resourceful enough to raid your kitchen before coming."

She thought about it for a minute. "Can you open a rift to home from here? You keep your mission gear in one place right? Just grab it." She inclined her head toward Frisk. "And while you're at it, drop the kid there."

I turned my hand to look into the void and found nothing. I looked into the hole in my other hand. Nothing. "I can't open a rift. I can't access the void from here." I groaned. "I really want to kill your Alphys right now."

"You'll have to stand in line behind me."

"Please don't!" Frisk pleaded. "I know she's done some really bad things, but she should have the chance to fix them."

Sans sighed and ruffled the girl's hair reassuringly before checking the hallway. "It looks like we're clear. Let's see what we can find in the offices." She jumped down and reached up for Frisk.

"You aren't making me stay in here?" she asked, confused.

"*I know you won't stay put so I'd rather have you with me than have you popping up at a bad time. Come on."

Frisk jumped into Sans' arms. I dropped down beside them. We went into the first office and found a pile of dust across the desk in a line to the floor. A monster had fallen down here. Sans took a deep breath and walked around the other side of the desk, careful not disturb the dust. She dug through the drawers and found a case file. Popping it open, she gave it a quick read before closing it and putting it back.

"Anything useful?" I asked.

"*Case notes for a project involving bacteria, but nothing special. Let's move on."

I carefully checked the hallway before we moved to the next office. There were three filing cabinets behind the desk. Each of us took one. 

"What am I looking for?" 

"*Anything having to do with human experimentation," Sans answered.

"Found something!" Frisk said. She handed a file to Sans who popped it open and started reading the contents.

"Adult human female. Found wandering the Ruins. She 'disappeared' en route to New Home. Disappear being code for nicked by Gaster. Looks like he kept her as a test subject for a while and then later as a 'pet.' After Gaster's demise, Alphys started a new set of experiments..." She handed the file to me. "I am not reading that aloud in front of a child."

I looked at it, closed it, put it on the desk, and signed, "Forced breeding? With who? Or what? There's no mention in the file of another human or monster involved."

Sans thought about it for a moment and signed back, "Cloning is a possibility. Clone the original human, add the correct hormones at the correct times, and you'd have a male test subject."

"What are you two saying?" Frisk said, looking back and forth between us.

I put a hand on her head. "We're talking about the file and you don't need to know why. Trust me on this." I looked at Sans. "So how do you make the offspring impervious to magic? In fact, how do you shut down void magic in an entire area?"

"*We need to keep looking," Sans answered. 

I nodded and checked the hallway. We moved down to the last door at the end. I leaned against it, listening. 

"There's my little piggies!" 

The human was behind us?! I pulled the door open and we hurried in. I pulled the door shut behind us, quickly looking about the room. It was a huge space filled with bloody tables, gore stained equipment, and cages. Lots of cages. The humans in the cages started screaming. Sans spotted a door and motioned us to run for it. I picked up Frisk and ran for the door through the cacophony. 

The human burst through the door behind us, barreling through the room, shoving tables out of his way to get to us faster. We got to the back door. Locked. 

Sans turned the door red, pulling it with a loud screech from it's hinges. She turned and flung it at the human. It staggered him for a moment, but that was all we needed. Once through the door, we were in a pitch dark room. Flowey grabbed us all with his vines and lifted us to the rafters. The human howled when he came in the room, pushing and shoving boxes and tables on the floor around. Unable to see in the dark, the human turned and left the room standing just outside it, blocking the light. Flowey carefully carried us along the ceiling to the far end of the room, placing us gently behind boxes illuminated only by the red glow of Sans' eyes. 

There was a door in front of us. Sans tried it and found it unlocked. She quietly checked inside. Another dark room. She slipped in. Frisk and I followed, carefully closing the door behind me. Reaching around on the wall, I found a light switched and flipped it. I immediately grabbed Frisk's sweater and pulled it up over her eyes. 

I quickly picked her up and whispered, "Don't look, Frisk. Just stay quiet and don't try to look."

She nodded, trembling against me. Sans stared for a minute before taking Frisk from my arms and holding her tightly, skull buried against the sweater.

Strapped to a table in the middle of the room was the 'mother.' Skin paper thin against the bones except around the stomach which drooped around her like puddle. Her hair was a tangled mess in the restraints. 

"Doctor?" she whispered, staring at me. "Dings? Is that you?"

Sans looked up, left eye white. She set Frisk down and walked over to woman, gently touching her face. The white eye searched the room for a moment, before Sans stepped to a set of lockers. She opened one and pulled out a blanket. Covering the woman carefully, she proceeded to undo the restraints. 

There was a sudden pounding at the door. The woman moaned in fear. I jumped in to help get the restraints off of her. Sans pointed at the door and dozens of ethereal hands appeared, holding the door shut. Frisk pulled her sweater down and ran for me, away from the door. 

The last restraint undone, Sans lifted the woman, making sure to cover her well in the blanket. She walked to a set of shelves and pushed a hidden button, opening a concealed hallway. I picked up Frisk and hurried after her, pulling the shelving closed behind us. The hallway let out on the other side of the barrier where we had hidden before from the human. 

Sans set the woman down gently and motioned to Frisk, white eye glowing brightly. "*CoMe cHiLd. i HavE NeEd of THE foOD In youR BaG." The earthly tone to her voice was gone. Only the ethereal remained.

Frisk pulled a thermos of Spider Cider from her bag and handed it over. Sans carefully tipped the cider into the woman's mouth drop by drop. Slowly the flesh around her face filled out. Sans would stop periodically to check the woman's body before continuing. When the thermos was empty, the woman looked more or less normal, if incredibly tired. She stood on shaky legs, clutching the blanket around her tightly.

Sans dropped the thermos and clutched her skull. "*ooooh." Her voice was back to normal.

"Sans?"

She looked around confused. "*How did we get here?"

"You turned into Gaster." 

"*I... I did?" Sans looked at her hands. "That's never happened before."

The woman opened her mouth to speak and I waved for her to be quiet. She nodded.

"While 'under the influence' you led us out here." I climbed up the barrier and looked around. "It's clear. Let's get out of here."

I moved to turn us all blue. The magic failed on the woman. Was the human's magic immunity an inherited trait? I'd wonder about that later. I picked her up and floated all of us over the barrier. We quietly made our way down the hall back to Gaster's office. Sans motioned us to stop at every door along the way to listen for a moment before moving us a long. A pool of red blood welled from underneath one of the doors.

"That looks really, really fresh," Frisk whispered.

Sans glared at her and raised a phalanges to her non-existent lips. She listened at the door. She looked at me, confused. She signed, 'I hear nothing.'

I put woman down as quietly as I could and moved her to stay behind me. I signed back, 'I will check it. We don't need something behind us.'

Sans nodded and went to stand with Frisk and the woman.

I knelt in front of the door, listening close, and tried the doorknob. It turned and clicked softly. It was yanked from my phalanges, and the force made me slip in the puddle of blood under my boney feet, landing with a splash. 

The human stood in the doorway, another long knife in one hand and a freshly dead body in the other. I could see the victim's soul hovering in the air. I got my feet under me and sprung to get behind him. The human moved in front of me and I crashed into him, bouncing backwards and splashing down in the blood again. 

I attempted to turn him blue. 

Nothing. 

He brought the knife down on me. I rolled to the side and flipped backwards to get back on my feet. He growled and swung at me again. I dodged to the side and summoned a bone, using it as a club to bash him. It went through him as if it were blue.

He swung at me with the body and knocked me back into the hallway. I ducked his follow up with the knife. Sans reached for me and was cracked solidly in the rib cage. She hit the ground with a groan, her resting HP suddenly gone.

The human turned toward Frisk and the woman.

The soul still hovered there. I turned it blue and pulled it to me, absorbing it. My bones ignited with raw power. I grabbed the human by the head and flung him back into the room, away from Frisk and the woman. 

I was taller than the human now. Interesting. 

I went back into the room. 

The human crawled on the ground, groping for his knife. He found it and climbed to his feet, turning to me with a sick smile. The smile disappeared when he saw me. He screamed in terror and charged me wildly with the knife. I back handed him, sending him into the near wall with a crunch. A coolness came over me as he slid to the floor with a dull thud. His soul lifted from him, quavering violently before it shattered.

"Bones?"

I turned back to Frisk, she stood in the doorway looking at me, eyes wide with awe. 

"You look so cool!"

I swished my tail along the floor joyfully. 

Tail?

I looked down at myself. I was easily taller than my brother. Bones thicker. Stronger. Sharper. My tail was long with a line of spikes down the vertebrae and ending in a pointed barb. I extracted the human soul from mine. It quivered in front of me as my bones gave up the excess magic and returned to normal. I sat down and held my skull in my phalanges. After a few deep breaths, I looked back up. Frisk and Flowey were both in front of me, watching me curiously. 

"You okay?" she asked.

"No." I stood. "Let's go." She took my hand and we went back out to Sans, who was sitting up, eating hot cat and washing it down with a bottle of spicy mustard. 

She looked up at me. "*Your LOVE went up. Please tell me that means that thing is dead."

"The human is dead. You should get a team down here to clear this place out. I'm pretty sure, no matter who made the synthetic souls, you have enough human ones down here to get the barrier open."

She pointed at the one hovering near my head. "*Is that his?"

I shook my head. "No. His shattered. The puddle of blood over there belongs to this one."

"*It seems to like you."

"He absorbed it!" Frisk chirped excitedly. "He had a tail and spikes all the way up his spine! He glowed all blue and looked terrifying! It was so cool!" She jumped up an down with her enthusiasm. "Would you look like that if you absorbed a human soul?"

Sans shook her head. "*Don't know. Don't plan to find out anytime soon." She stood. "*You okay?"

"No." 

She frowned. "*Lets grab your stuff and head up stairs. I want to know what Alphys was doing down here."

Back in the office, I pulled my clothes out of the cabinet and handed my turtleneck and jeans to the woman. She dressed while I pulled on my jacket, carefully checking all the pockets, while Frisk helped Sans gather up the papers. We headed back up the stairs, being sure to lock the door behind us. Once upstairs, Sans dumped the records on me before grabbing Alphys by the lab coat and slamming her against the wall.

"*What the fuck where you doin' down there? There are humans down there and one of them knocked all of my resting HP out of me with one hit." She pointed at me. "*That's Bones! The Bones! And he had to absorb a soul in order to fight the freak of nature you left down there!"

Alphys sniffed indignantly. "Put me down, Sans. You will not manhandle me like a common criminal. I am the Royal Scientist."

"*You won't be after Asgore and Toriel hear about this." Her left eye turned white again. "*I aM NOT pLeASeD wITh tHE wAy YOu HaVe TReaTEd MY pEt!"

Alphys was suddenly ashen. "Doctor?!" She started kicking and struggling against Sans hold. Multiple hands appeared and held Alphys in place. 

Sans stepped away, eye returning to red. "*God dammit, Alphys! The barrier is shut and you were breeding humans down there? What the fuck?"

"The barrier isn't taken care of yet?" Alphys gasped. "Don't we already have seven souls?!"

"Counting Frisk, you have four," I said. "Three of them were fakes." 

She calmed suddenly, looking thoughtful. "Well, that makes sense then. The three I supplied from the Lab were part of experiments from earlier researchers."

"*Do you mean Gaster?"

"No. Two assistants." She snapped her fingers in the air, thinking. "Moldwin and Brineman."

The hands holding Alphys to the wall disappeared. "*Brineman murdered Moldwin over credit for some discovery."

"That's a very specific thing to remember," Alphys sniffed, pushing her glasses up.

"*Easy for me. Moldwin's murder occurred two hours before Gaster's accident. I was the assigned investigator. Brineman refused to talk about what they were working on. Shit." Sans found a chair and sat in it.

"So did we just go through all that down stairs for nothing?" Flowey asked.

Frisk huffed and pointed at the woman. "We saved her and we got a soul out of it!" She sighed. "I still say you shouldn't open the barrier. You don't want to go outside."

"Why not?" I asked.

Frisk put her head down. "..."

Sans pulled out her phone and called in. "*Hey Boss-man. We're going to need a specialist team for a basement level of the Lab and we need it ASAP. There are a LOT of humans down there." She paused, listening. "*Yeah. I'll have a report for you. You aren't going to like any of it." Silence. "*Got it. See you in the morning." She sighed and looked at Alphys. "*Don't even think of going anywhere."

"Come on, Frisk," Flowey nudged. "Time to go home."

"What about her," Frisk asked, looking up at the woman.

Sans blinked, eye turning white for a moment and then red again. "*Take her with you. Tell Papy to put her in my bed tonight. I won't be seeing it until tomorrow anyway." She looked at the woman. "*What's your name, Sweetheart?"

"Daisy."

Sans groaned. "*Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me." I resisted the urge to laugh.

The woman looked at the floor, one arm absently rubbing the other.

Sans sighed. "*Sorry. It's a long story and nothing about you..." Sans stared at her for a moment.

"What about the soul?" Frisk stalled.

Sans looked at the soul. It still hovered near my head. She chuckled. "Looks like you have a new friend."

I sighed and looked at the soul. "Listen, kid. Someone I love very dearly has given me her soul. I can't be walking around with a second one."

Sans and Alphys both gasped. 

"*Your Frisk made you a soul promise?" Sans punched me in the arm. "*You sly dog!"

I smirked. "I'll get Frisk, Flowey, and Daisy home for you. Do you need me after that?"

Sans shook her skull. "*No. Thank you. I'm sorry it turned into a suck-fest. I owe you a big one for this."

I shooed the soul over to Sans. "I'll hold you to that." I held out my hand to Frisk and offered my arm to Daisy, walking them both out of the Lab and down to the Riverperson's boat. I dropped my charges with a Papyrus who had a few things to say to Frisk, but otherwise welcomed Daisy into the house.

I opened a rift and I landed outside under a night sky. Lights glowed warmly from the cabin. I opened the door and went inside. Frisk sat in front of the fire with her knitting. Cross sat next to Papyrus while D read aloud from a book. 

Frisk looked up at me with a smile. "Hey..." Her face fell and she dropped her knitting to stand. She grabbed my right arm, inspecting the marks on my bones under the red splatter. "What happened?" 

"*How did you get so dirty while your jacket is still clean?" D asked.

"WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR CLOTHES?"

Cross frowned. "I've got a better question. Why do you look like you've been playing real life Outlast?"

I sighed, scapulas drooping. "I think I was. Would you give me a hand, Babe?"

"Always. Let's get you cleaned up and then you can tell us what happened." Frisk led me to the bathroom and closed the door behind us. I hung my jacket on the hook behind the door while Frisk got the shower running. She scrubbed my ribs from the back while I worked the front.

"It's mended but I can see the marks from your entire rib cage cracking." She carefully worked between the ribs. "Physically speaking, are you all right? We can head home and Asriel will look you over right now."

"In the morning." 

Frisk sighed and continued working.

"Look at you, being all careful not to touch my spine," I teased.

She smiled. "I know what happens when I do." She squeezed out the wash cloth. "Mentally speaking, are you all right? You seem heavier. Like you saw a few things that you wish you hadn't."

I shuddered. "May I sleep you tonight?"

"You may share my bed whenever you like." Frisk checked the areas around my joints one last time before turning off the water and grabbing a towel. "That bad?" She wrapped the towel around me.

"I had to absorb a human soul and used it's power to kill."

She took my boney hands in hers. "Where you protecting someone else when you did it?"

"Yes."

Frisk lifted my hands to her mouth and kissed both just above the holes. "Then you did the right thing."

I gripped her hands. "It felt like I was cheating on you. My wish was that the only soul I would ever know that way would be yours at the end of your time."

Frisk stepped up to me. "Don't think like that. You weren't cheating on me and the way you will know my gift will be completely different." She stood up on her toes and kissed the underside of my mandible. "Come on. You have a story to tell. You'll feel better when you've shared it." She smiled at me, a little glimmer in her eye. "I'll sit on your lap and hold you."

"Careful now. You might send me into a femur."

She swatted me with the towel.


	3. Ep 3 - Talismans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: The G!Sans that appears here was inspired by LisaNani's design, but has no other relation to her work. Check Lisa out on tumblr. Calcium Man belongs to Kry and Exekyl. Check out Calcium Man on the AU Masterlist. The Queen's Garden is a Shadow Hearts reference. 
> 
> 1\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Ep. 3 - Talismans

I stared at my phone for a full minute. 

"SANS?"

I looked at Paps. "It's not April first, is it?"

Paps shook his head. "WHY?"

"Frisk just texted me that she's calling off sick today."

He took the phone from my hand and looked at the text with the same utter disbelief I felt. 

Frisk? Sick?

She's never sick.

Paps handed my phone back to me. "TEXT HER BACK AND ASK HER IF SHE NEEDS US TO GET HER ANYTHING WHILE WE'RE OUT."

I nodded and texted back. My phone vibrated almost immediately. "She says a slice of cinnamon white cake from Muffet's bakery."

We hit up Muffet's place before heading back to the Foundation. I quick stopped in my room to dig a t-shirt and hoodie out of my dresser before heading over to Frisk's apartment. A Sans of my variation wearing a black turtleneck, black pants, and two equipment belts crossed over his hips leaned against the wall outside the suite door with a lollipop in his mouth.

"*Hey, Bones."

"G."

While only one of our variation went by G as an official nickname, it was, in the end, how most of us referred to ourselves. The ones who had started out strictly as Sans, such as Iris, being the notable exceptions.

"*Going to see your Frisk?" 

"You need a favor?"

"*Yeah."

I nodded for him to follow me. "You're going to be out of luck today. She's sick."

He looked confused. "*Are you sure? I didn't think that was possible."

I stopped outside of her door. "She called off sick."

He looked at the door and stopped me from heading in, his skull taking on a smirk only our variation could ever pull off. "*Ten bucks says I can trick your girl into thinking I'm you."

I snorted. "Oh, I'll take that action. You just try it." I stood back from the doorway so she wouldn't catch sight of me when he went in.

G smiled and swaggered into Frisk's apartment. 

Frisk was curled up on the couch, covered under a quilt, and staring miserably at an art stream on her laptop. G knelt in front her with a soft smile and gently touched her face.

"*How ya feelin,' Babe?"

Frisk glared at him and knocked his hand away. "Back off, impostor."

His jaw dropped. "*How did you know?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled the lollipop from his mouth, using it to point at him. "Let's start with the obvious. You don't smell like my Sans. After that, you're right handed. Your clothing is all wrong. And Bones doesn't call me 'Babe' in private. Seriously. Completely separate from my being an investigator, Bones is my partner, my Sans. Why did you think you could fool me?"

G grimaced and put up both hands as I came in. "*Okay. Okay." He sighed and took his lollipop back. "*Damn it all. I really need your help and you're in no condition to do anything."

Frisk smiled weakly when she saw me and took my hand. "What do you need, Sans?"

He huffed and stood. "*G. Call me G."

She raised an eyebrow. "I only call one of your variation G and you aren't him."

G looked up at me and I signed, 'Ask nicely.'

"*Please?"

She sighed. "What do you need, G?"

"*The good doctor has me collecting a set of seven talismans. They were part of the original spell that locked monsters underground in my timeline. I've collected five so far and the other two won't be an issue to retrieve. However, someone broke into the Lab and stole the five I've found. I'm pretty sure they were taken by an anti-monster group that wants to reseal monsters back into the underground."

Frisk looked at him for a minute, silent. Then she turned to me. "Take Cross."

G looked between the two of us. "*Who?"

I handed the t-shirt and hoodie to Frisk before handing her Muffet's cake. "The former leader of Midnight Collapse."

"*You're fucking with me, right?"

Frisk shook her head. "You need my skill set, he's got it." She stared him dead in both eye sockets. "Don't shoot him in the back." She looked at the shirt and hoodie. "Why'd you give me these?"

I smirked. "You're sick and I know you don't have much in the way of comfy clothes that aren't pj's. I figured that'd help you feel a little more normal."

By the look she gave me, I was pretty sure I'd melted her heart and maybe a few other places.

G signed, 'Damn. You're good.'

Red's Frisk bounded into the room, silver gray hair bouncing around her face, and Flowey wrapped around her head like a crown. "Oh wow! You really are sick!"

Frisk smiled at her. "Stay back, kiddo. Your brother doesn't need to worry about you being sick. I take it he's here somewhere?"

"Sans and Dad are here. Whatever you have has knocked out most of the staff and Asriel called for some help." She looked at G. "Oh, I'm sorry! I haven't met you at all." She smiled and held out her hand. "Hi! I'm one of the many Frisks!"

G took her hand gently, something all Sans-es did when they met her. Like she would break. "*G. And whose Frisk might you be?"

"Reds'."

"*You're the genius." G smiled with real pride in her. "*The one that actually solved for the Prime world."

Frisk suddenly looked embarrassed and looked to me for help. I smirked.

"Uh, yeah. Um." She smiled again. "So what's your story? Are you Gaster's son?"

G shook his head. "*I'm a cloning experiment." He pulled one sleeve back, showing off a metal plate screwed into his ulna. It was inscribed with a ridiculously high number. "*I'm the only success."

"Yikes." She poked the plate. "Does it hurt?"

He shook his skull.

She suddenly looked sad. "So no Papyrus for you, huh? What's your Frisk like?"

He grinned and patted her shoulder. "*No Papyrus for me. My Frisk is a teen with a serious penchant for trouble."

"So why are you hanging around here?"

He put his hands in his pockets. "*I need a hand in my timeline."

Frisk pouted and looked at her other self. "Frisk is out. You'll have to take Cross. Provided he's not sick. Is he sick?"

My girl shook her head. "He's been poking fun at me all morning on the stream." She pointed to her laptop. 

Frisk knelt to look at the stream. "Wow. That's a lot of people watching him work. Does he stream often?" Her jaw dropped. "Oh my God. Is he drawing Calcium Man?"

My girl chuckled. "Oh yeah."

"That's awesome!"

G signed, 'He kidnapped her, right? What's up with the chummy attitude?'

I shrugged and signed, 'Frisks.' "Come on," I said. "Let's go break up their fun." I leaned over and nuzzled the side of my Sunflower's face. "I'm sorry I won't be here to cuddle you today." 

She turned her head and kissed me. "No worries. You can make it up to me later." 

I held out a hand to G. He took it and I short cut us to the cabin. 

He turned and looked around the forest. "*Where are we?"

"My Frisk's family cabin."

"*Nice. You hang here often?"

"Only since D, his brother, and Cross started living here. You know how my girl is. I didn't even know this place existed until Cross came here looking for a place to be alone and think."

G looked at the cabin door. "*You sure we can trust him?"

I nodded. "We're good." I knocked on the door before letting myself in. "Hey guys."

Papyrus looked up from his book with a smile. D, who appeared to be napping on the couch, raised a hand and saluted. 

Cross looked up from the Wacom tablet and laptop in front of him. "Hey, Bones. What's up? Besides everyone at the Foundation being sick."

"REALLY? EVERYONE IS SICK?" Papyrus closed his book.

Cross pointed to the laptop. "What do you think I've been razzing Church about all morning?"

I snorted. "G needs some help and Frisk said to take you since she's out sick."

D opened his eye sockets and stared at the ceiling, waiting for Cross' response.

"Sure. Let me cut the art stream. What do you need help with?"

D's single yellow eye slid over and watched G.

"*Seven talismans were used to seal monsters Underground in my timeline. I retrieved five of them and all five where stolen from the Lab."

Cross closed the laptop. "So track them down and get them back before someone completes the set and remakes the barrier. Okay." He stood, putting his stuff away. "What kind of security did the thief or thieves have to get through to steal the talismans?"

"*It's a tight set up."

Cross looked at him. "If you had to get through the security without deactivating it and not using magic, could you?"

He raised a brow bone. "*Yeah."

Cross looked at me. "Is he as good as Church?"

"Close enough."

Cross frowned. "Well. That's not good. Let me grab a few things. Ask Church if I can borrow her travel bag." He disappeared into the back of the cabin. 

D's yellow eye still followed G while I reached into a rift and grabbed the bag Frisk kept packed especially for Cross from the equipment room. 

G flipped his lollipop to the other side of his mouth and put his hands in his pockets, relaxed. "*You gonna keep staring daggers into me or actually say what you've got on your mind."

D closed his eye sockets. "*Just keep your nasal bone clean, Agent Helvetica."

Cross came back out, having changed into dark clothing I recognized as being part of a uniform. A very specific uniform. A younger Frisk wore it standing next to her father in a photo on the wall to my left. A green and black snake poised to strike adorned the left shoulder of his jacket. I tossed him the bag. Papyrus watched his charge, nervous. 

Cross smiled at him, but it lacked the essential cheerfulness that we'd learned very quickly was intrinsic to his nature. Now in uniform, he'd reverted to some training in which he was allowed to be affable, but was expected to be mission oriented first. It reminded me of Frisk when I'd first met her. She was so mission oriented, suddenly being surrounded by monsters was not as important as her investigation of the disappearances. I'd watched her wander the Underground, constantly checking evidence against her original notes. There were only a few times that she'd broken free of the mission mentality. When she stepped into Waterfall, I saw the real Frisk for the first time, her face filled with wonder. 

It'd taken a few years before the 'mask' she wore had completely fallen away. 

"It's fine, Papyrus. No worries. Promise."

"I'M HOLDING YOU TO THAT."

Cross nodded and looked at me. I held out a boney hand to him and he took it. G put his hand on my shoulder and I put us outside the Lab in G's world. G held the door open for us, doing his impression of a gentleman. 

Cross shrugged and headed in stopping after a few feet to check out the interior. "This is way different from my Alphys' place."

"*Alphys isn't the royal scientist in my timeline. She does work here though she isn't the workaholic that the good Doctor is." G stopped. "*Didn't you kill your Alphys?"

Cross walked passed him to the elevator. "No. The only monster I killed was my Asriel."

I looked at him, skull cocked to the side. "Then why is your timeline so barren?"

"Time shenanigans. When Paps figured out how to move back and forth in time along our timeline, Chara convinced me that I wouldn't be a danger to my friends if I lived in St. Canard when no one was left. It was his way of offering me comfort while keeping me completely isolated." He pushed the button for the elevator and took us into the True Lab. 

We followed G to the room off Refrigeration, which had been converted into a vault. He stopped just long enough to throw out his empty lollipop stick in a trash can and pop a fresh one in his mouth. 

Cross looked around the area, taking it all in. "Is there anyway down here besides the elevator?" he asked.

"*The back stairwell on the other side of fans."

"So someone had to walk through the lab to get all the way over here." Cross checked the door. "The door wasn't forced. So whoever opened it had to know the combination." He walked into the vault, looking around the interior. "This is too clean." Cross turned around and looked at G. "Either someone working in the lab stole the talismans or they gave the information on how to steal them to the person or persons who did." He frowned. "There aren't any security tapes for down here, are there?"

G shook his head. "The Doctor likes his privacy."

"What makes you think an anti-monster group is behind it? Have you seen anything that would indicate that such a group would have the talismans?"

Before G could answer, Dr. Gaster strode into the vault, tall and menacing. It didn't have any effect on us.

"Have you found the talismans yet? You do understand the danger monsters would be in if someone should manage to reseal the barrier?" 

"*I said I'd take care of it, Boss. So let me take care of it."

Gaster frowned deeply before leaving the room.

G took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "*We've got several anti-monster groups out there. Frisk has been kidnapped so often his mailing address is 'Over the Shoulder of a Cultist.'

Cross frowned. "The problem we have right now is that this is a clean break in. Meaning anyone with the necessary knowledge could have pulled it off. If it'd been a pro, there'd be some place to start. Our best option is to retrieve the two outstanding talismans and use them as bait to catch the thief or thieves."

G raised a brow bone and looked between us. "*Let's get going then." He led us out via the stairs. "*The two talismans left are the Green one and the Red one. The Green one is hidden in the Queen's Garden and the Red one is hidden in an art collection here in St. Canard." G put an arm around either of our shoulders and short cut us to the surface. 

We landed under a starry sky in front of a building that had, in its prime, been a palace. Now, glass was shattered in multiple windows and plant life had taken over the majority of the walls and interior.

"Queen's Garden indeed," Cross said. He checked the door, quickly disabled the lock, and pulled it open.

"*If we're lucky, the thief doesn't know the location of the last two." 

"How did you find them?" I asked.

"*An old legend the Doctor found. The whole thing was a riddle. After Alphys and I worked out the locations, Gaster sent me off to retrieve them. Some of them had already ended up in museums and private collections."

Cross pulled out a flashlight and fit a red disk into the front slot before shining it inside. 

"*Stay on your toes. Every one of the original resting places for these things have had a strange creature or two protecting it."

Cross looked back. "Monsters?"

G shook his head. "*They don't turn to dust when you defeat them. They just vanish like they were never there."

"Good to know."

We followed Cross inside the building, following a long, dark hallway lit only by the flashlight and the glow of monster eyes. Cross' light swept back and forth through the hallway.

"Is it just me or have we been walking for a long time?" I asked. 

Cross looked at me and then shined his light behind me. "You're right and we haven't gone anywhere."

I looked back. We were standing right next to the entrance as if we'd just come in. 

"*What the hell?"

Cross shrugged. "It's a puzzle. We need to figure out the conditions for going forward. There's probably a hidden door near the entrance. Check the left and I'll take the right." He and I searched the walls while G supervised.

My phalanges slid over an obvious door jamb under the foliage. "Found it." 

Cross came over and felt along the wall. Finding the door knob, he twisted it, and pulled the door open. The roof over the room long gone, the full moonlight shone down on a massive curl of bones as big as I was tall. A snake skeleton with a face like a Noh Mask and a long tongue uncurled itself to tower us. 

"Cool," Cross whispered. 

It's tongue lashed at us. Cross ducked it as G and I summoned bone barriers between us and it. Cross ducked the next lash and slipped between it's ribs. It immediately ignored G and I to go after him. Cross kept using the ribs as barriers between himself and the lashing tongue, weaving through the bones. The creature twisted, curling in and around itself. Cross finally climbed up on top of it and the head dove at him, mouth opening impossibly wide to bite him in half. He dropped down into the curled mess and rolled out underneath. 

The creature screamed in anger, having completely trapped itself in it's own body. It suddenly stopped moving and disappeared, fading into starlight.

G looked at Cross appreciatively. "*Why didn't you just kill it?"

"With what? I'm not armed."

My jaw dropped. "You aren't?" 

Cross shrugged. "Part of the deal I made with my Sans in order to even plane hop says that I'm not allowed to be armed on a mission unless Church hands me a weapon." He put his hands in his jacket pockets and leaned back. "Why would I need one anyway? The two of you know magic." He turned to search the room. 

G and I looked at each other.

"Found another door." Cross waved us over. 

The doorway opened on a curved hallway lined with windows on the left, illuminating large patches of rotting carpet. There was another door halfway around the curve. Cross checked the lock and leaned on the door.

"It's not budging. Give me hand?"

G and I pushed on the door.

"*Shit! What's behind this thing? A semi filled with multiple Jabba the Hutts?"

We shoved it open just enough to squeeze inside the dark room. Cross pulled out his flashlight and looked around.

"That is a really big statue," he said, toeing the thing that had blocked the door. He shined the flashlight around a room filled with torn paintings and musty furniture. "It looks like this place was a retreat of some kind. A vacation house. Do you know why it's called Queen's Garden?"

"*Way back in the day, this country had a monarch. One of those monarchs built the place as a gift to his aging mother."

"It's too bad the place is in such awful condition. You'd think it would have become a historical landmark." Cross started checking the walls.

"*What are you looking for?"

"Another door. There's no way that statue just stood itself in front of the only apparent entrance." 

G moved a book shelf. "*Here we go."

Cross shined his flashlight inside a small passage. "It looks like it connects with our never ending hallway." 

"Let's see if it will let us bypass whatever stops us from moving forward," I said.

We shimmied through the passage to the hallway. The passage let us out just in front of the door at the end of the hallway.

I looked back down the hall and swatted G on the shoulder. "Check that out."

"*Woah."

Cross looked down the hall. "I don't see anything."

I held up my hand. "Look through the hole at the hallway."

"Woah." He smiled, eyes filled with wonder. "It looks like tiny, spinning galaxy."

"It's a really old spell," I said. "No one makes them like that anymore. That's what made the endless hallway. If we tried to walk back to the entrance, it would deposit us right back here."

"Good to know." Cross turned to the door behind us and tried it. "Locked." He pulled out his picks and went to work, popping the door quickly. 

Inside, moonlight trickled down through a massive broken skylight, setting a room filled with white tulips aglow.

"Ah man. Church would have loved to see this." Cross pulled out his camera, taking a few pictures.

"*Are you a tourist or on a mission?"

"There's always time for a photo." He looked up at G. "Always." He put the lens cap back on and put the camera back in his pack. He turned toward me but his eyes slid to his left. "Someone else is here," he whispered.

G and I followed his gaze. A black figure moved around the other side of a bank of white tulips, heading for the open doorway on the right. I snapped my fingers, filling the air with the shing of blue magic. I turned the figure blue and lifted a familiar looking teenage boy over to us.

G through his hands up in the air. "*Frisk?! I swear! I can't leave you alone for any amount of time can I? How did you get here?"

I set the boy down.

"I took the train up. The station is about a twenty minute walk from here."

"*Tori's gonna have my ass," he grumbled. "At least tell me you left that damn flower at home."

"Flowey? Yeah. He's sleeping right now anyway."

"How did you get in here?" Cross asked.

"Oh cool! Another Frisk!" 

They fist bumped.

"I couldn't get passed the hallway, so I went back outside and walked around until I found a window I could climb through."

G sighed, eye sockets screwed shut. "You gotta be fucking kidding me." He pulled an empty lollipop stick out of his mouth and popped in a a fresh one, stuffing the trash in his pockets. He looked at Frisk. "You obviously heard us, so where were you heading? And remind me later to teach you how to actually sneak around without getting caught."

"I came in through a window in the room over there." He pointed to the open doorway on our right. "I was heading back into the room to avoid you guys."

I patted G on the shoulder. "Deep breathes, man. Deep breathes."

"*Fuck. Tori's gonna kill me." He took a deep breath and let it out slow. "*Let's find the talisman and get out of here."

"You mean this one?" Frisk held out a small, thick, green fabric inscribed in gold with a language I didn't recognize.

Cross turned away, trying his damnedest not to laugh, shoulders heaving with the effort.

"*Yeah. That one," G huffed. He took the talisman and tucked it in a pocket on one of his belts. "*Let's just get out of here." He hooked a phalanges in the teen's collar. Cross and I grabbed his shoulders. G short cut us back to St. Canard.

We stepped out of the alley next to the Risler Building into the flashing neon downtown of G's St. Canard City. It was so bright I could see Vegas natives telling this place to tone it down a notch. Street vendors were out selling everything from clothing to knock off jewelry to food.

Frisk took in a deep breath, nose out. "Oh that smells good!" 

G pulled some cash out of a pocket and handed it to the teen. "*Go get yourself something to eat. While you're at it, call Undyne to come and babysit you."

"You're going to get the last talisman, right?" Frisk stuffed the cash in a pocket. "I'll come along."

Both of G's eyes went completely dark. "*No. The last one has the most security and right now, you've got the least of my patience."

"Fine." Frisk pulled out a cellphone and turned away to text. 

"So, do all Sans-es of your variation have the most problematic of all the Frisks?" Cross asked, watching Frisk head off.

"*It seems that way," G groaned.

"You're forgetting the Frisk that's a mage," I said.

"*Yeah, but His Majesty Chara makes up for her lack of sass."

Frisk was staring down the alley at something. When I followed the look, I noticed Cross watching as well. Several humans were gathered around a monster and harassing him. 

Cross entire posture turned cold and calculated. He whistled high and loud. "You guys want to take a hike on your own, or would you like me to supply the motivation?"

The group stopped and turned to him. 

"Who's the big man with--"

One of the others grabbed the speaker. "Shut the fuck up, man! Look at what he's wearin'!"

"Shit! Run for it!"

They ran for it down the alley, leaving the monster alone. 

Cross shook himself, warmth coming back to his eyes. "I guess you do have Vipers here."

"That was AWESOME!" Frisk said. "I wanna be like you when I grow up."

"No you don't," Cross said. He ruffled the teen's hair. "You're really cool. You should be you." He pushed Frisk toward the monster and turned back to G. "So where are we heading?"

G nodded to a posh hotel down the street. "The Sativa's penthouse suite."

"Do you have any intel on it or are we going in blind?"

"*The guy who owns the building likes to think he's a big player but even the mafia around here don't go that big. His security system is state of the art, but also the easiest on the market for pros to get through. He keeps the talisman in a case with several other museum pieces. The only reason someone hasn't grabbed it yet or anything else he's got of value is because it's all completely miss labelled."

"Are you sure that's not a security tactic? I've seen collectors miss label to protect their valuables."

"*He didn't strike me as being that smart."

Cross looked at the hotel. "Did he inherit his money or build it on his own?"

"*He built it on his own."

"Then he's that smart. What's his name?"

"Oliver Loring."

Undyne walked up to G and put an arm around him. "So what's the little punk been up to now?"

"*Following me into danger. Once he's gotten himself some food, can you make sure he's safely at Tori's place?"

"Sure thing." She spied Cross and I. "Since when were there two of you?"

"*Since time and space shenanigans."

Undyne shrugged. "Remember, you have an anime date with Alphys tonight."

G smiled big. "*And I will be there with the popcorn and the chocolate syrup!"

Cross cringed. "Oh please tell me that's his condiment and not a sex reference."

"It's his condiment," I assured him.

G pointed at him. "And it has to be home made. From scratch."

Undyne laughed and grabbed Frisk by the collar of his shirt. "Come on, Punk! Let's get you some food!"

G led us over to the hotel. He stopped at the door, talking up one of the security guards in a familiar way for a bit while palming the man's security access card. We headed over to the elevators and G swiped the card, taking us to the floor below the penthouse. The floor was dedicated to the staff with laundry, janitorial, and housekeeping areas, cubicles for office staff, and a large cafeteria. After hours, the floor was mostly dark with a very small night crew answering phones and handling guest cleaning needs. G led us deftly around the night staff to a private stairwell between the floor and the penthouse. Another card swipe had us up on the empty and dark penthouse level, one laser filled hallway between us and the mini-museum.

Cross rolled his eyes at the criss-crossing lasers. "Please." He jumped, spun, and flipped through the gauntlet, rolling to his feet on the other side of the hall. G and I short cut to him.

"*Show off," G grumbled as he walked up to the museum case that held the talisman. 

Cross snorted. "That wasn't showing off." He knelt next to the case and listened to the hum inside for a minute before tapping the side twice and front once. The electricity to the case suddenly cut, killing the security. He stood and opened the case. "That's showing off." He very carefully lifted the red talisman from the case and checked it for security devices before handing it to G. He stowed it in a pocket on his second belt while Cross closed the case. 

G put his arms around our shoulders and short cut us back to outside the Lab.

Cross held the door for us. "Why not just short cut directly into the Lab?"

"*The good Doctor hates it when I do that. It's just easier to stop here and walk inside. So what's your plan?"

"You'll keep the originals on you while we set up fakes with trackers in them for the thief." Cross looked around the refrigeration room and pulled his back off of his back. "Let's see what Church has in here. If I'm lucky..." He blinked a few times, looking inside. "This is not Church's bag."

I put my hands in my pockets and leaned against the wall. "Nope. It's the one she put together for you."

Cross shook his head. "You know, I really should have been clued in when the camera I pulled out earlier wasn't one of her little point and clicks." He continued digging through the bag. "Ah! Here's what I'm looking for!" He pulled out a very small box.

"What's that?" I asked.

"*That's a very tiny digital recorder," G answered. "*Those things are really damn expensive."

"Oh yeah." Cross dug through the bag, pulling out various materials and started working. "Hopefully, the retrieval of the two missing talismans will prompt the thief to come here for them. When they do, the motion detector here will set off an alarm on my phone and I can check the feedback from the camera." He attached the camera to the back of one fridge giving it a wide angle on the room and the vault door. "The camera will continuously record once I put it into position so if whatever comes in doesn't set off the motion detector, it won't matter. We'll still get a look at it later."

Cross changed the angle on the motion detector. "On second thought, let's just angle this toward the vault door, then it won't matter if our thief can slip the tracker, the door won't." He checked his watch. "And Bones and I should really get something to eat."

"Dinner sounds good. Grillby's?" I asked.

"Grillby's," he confirmed. He looked to G. "Go ahead over to Alphys. We'll call if I get a hit." 

"What are you kids watching?" 

"*The Devil is a Part Timer," G answered.

"That's a good one," Cross said, repacking his bag. "The skele-bros and I just finished binge watching that one."

I saluted G before putting a boney hand on Cross' shoulder and short cutting us to Grillby's. Halfway through a double order of burg, Cross' phone buzzed. He unlocked the screen and we saw an adult human man carefully opening the vault like it was his own.

I called G, "We've got a human on the camera."

G was suddenly standing next to us and looking at Cross' phone. "I don't know who that is, but I recognize the logo on his polo. It's the Loring family crest. He looks enough like Oliver Loring, that I'm betting he's a family member."

"I told you he was smart. That means the other talismans were probably in the penthouse," Cross groaned. "We could have grabbed them all." He turned to G. "Does he have a history with the anti-monster crowd?"

G shook his head. "*He made his money on the tourism from monsters being in the city."

Cross frowned. "Do you have somewhere you can stow the two on you? I don't want them anywhere near the other five."

"*I can drop them on Undyne."

Cross stood and froze. "Call Toriel and make sure your Frisk is with her."

"Have a bad feeling?" I asked.

"Yeah."

G picked up his phone. "*Hey, Tori. Frisk is with you right now, right?" He waited, silent.

There was a strange noise on the other side of the phone and then Toriel's voice, clear as day, "He's gone!" A soft whimper followed. "Sans. There's blood on the floor."

Cross and I grabbed G's arms before he could short cut away without us. We were suddenly standing in a hallway in a small house. Toriel stood there, shaking. G put his arms around her, softly cooing to calm her down. Cross entered the room and pulled on a glove before touching anything. The TV played the music associated with the 'Game Over' screen from whatever game he'd dropped in the middle of the kidnapping.

Cross crouched down to touch the game system. "The controller is still warm." Cross looked up. "And the window is wide open. Frisk wasn't taken that long ago." Something caught his eye and he reached under the bed to pull out a small, red stained pocket knife. "Is this Frisk's pocket knife?"

"*Yeah."

"Then I'm willing to bet this isn't his blood." Cross put the knife down and stood. "Is Flowey missing too?"

Toriel nodded.

Cross pulled out his phone and checked the trackers in the fakes. "It looks like the fakes are... heading out of town?" He held up his phone so G could see the map. "Where is that?"

"*That's where the Queen's Garden is located."

Cross hopped twice and looked up. "G? Drop the talismans with Toriel and follow Frisk's trail. Bones and I will head for the Garden."

G nodded and gave Toriel a tight hug. "*It'll be all right. I'll bring him back. Promise."

She nodded as he handed her the talismans. He swapped an empty paper stick out for a fresh lollipop and headed out the window. I put a hand on Cross' shoulder and short cut us to the Queen's Garden. Cross pulled me into the bushes and pointed at my eye. I blacked it out. He pulled his phone and carefully tilted it so light from the tracker wouldn't show. We'd beaten the thief here by a few minutes. 

Cross made himself a little more comfortable and pointed to the gate-less archway that made the entrance to the grounds in front of the Garden. "Be ready to block escape with a bone barrier across the archway. I'm not sure how many people they'll have or why they'd come all the way out here. Assume everyone is armed and dangerous."

A car pulled up to the archway and several men in suits came out. Frisk was pulled out a car, holding onto Flowey's pot. They came through the archway, pushing the kid ahead of them.

"No one's here, Boss."

"Then we wait."

Another car pulled up and another group exited with a frightened little girl between them. These men looked nervous and a little giddy; an anti-monster faction. They came to stand directly in front of Cross and I. Frisk caught sight of the girl and leaned in to whisper something to Flowey. Flowey nodded.

Cross put his hand out, signaling me to wait for the obvious exchange to happen. 

"Send the boy with the talismans over and we'll give your daughter back, Oliver."

Oliver Loring flinched at the informal use of his name. He handed a bag to Frisk. "Go on."

Frisk walked across the small courtyard. He stopped to stand next to the girl. The bag was grabbed from him by the group's leader. The man opened the bag and pulled out the talismans. 

"Two of these are FAKE!"

The man holding onto the girl pulled out a gun. Frisk smashed Flowey's pot against the ground and grabbed the girl covering her with his body. Flowey hit the ground, dug in, and a mass of vines shot out of the ground, circling and covering the kids. 

I threw a barrier up in the archway and one in front of the Lorings, trapping them. 

Cross was on the man with a gun first, pulling his arm back and breaking the elbow in one swift movement. The man dropped the gun and Cross grabbed it mid-air as he stomped on the man's leg, breaking it just below the knee. 

The anti-monster group was frozen at the sight of such swift brutality. I took advantage of it and sent a volley of bones through them, trapping the rest against the courtyard wall.

G appeared next to the leader and grabbed him by the throat. "*I've got a bone to pick with you."

Cross popped the magazine from the gun, stowing both pieces in different pockets on his jacket. He looked up at Oliver Loring. He stepped in front of the man he'd left a broken heap on the ground. "You can let them up now, Flowey."

Flowey unwound himself from Frisk and the girl. Cross moved a little to the side, being sure to block the girl from seeing the man behind him. Frisk helped her stand.

"If your men can keep their firearms holstered, we'll drop the barrier keeping you trapped," Cross said.

Oliver nodded. "Put them up."

I dropped the barrier around them and the archway.

Cross waved the girl on. "Go on, kiddo. Your dad's waiting."

Frisk smiled at her as Flowey climbed up on his shoulder. "Go on. You're safe now."

The girl ran to her dad, hugging him tightly. Oliver looked up. "There is still the matter of my brother. That kid hurt him pretty bad."

Cross turned so that the snake insignia on his shoulder was illuminated in the moonlight. "How about you just forget about it and I'll over look that you kidnapped a member of the Dreemurr Royal Family."

"Holy Crow..." one of Loring's men whispered.

Oliver nodded to his men and they left through the archway, the girl looking back at Frisk.

"So what do you want to do with these guys?" I looked at the broken one on the ground. "Well, besides dropping this one in an emergency room."

"*This is Brian Crane and I've been tracking this asshole for the last three years. You've caused me quite a few problems."

"Monster!"

G smiled. "*Well, yes. I am a monster, but not the kind that kidnaps little kids."

"If you kill me, people will blame monsters for the disappearance."

G nodded. "*Most assuredly."

"So you might as well let me go."

"*Oh, I will." G smiled, big and mean. "Right into the arms of the local mafia. It seems you owe the local big guy quite a bit of money."

Crane's face fell. "No."

"*Well, it's either that or I give you to Oliver Loring. I'm sure he can think up some really interesting things to do to you for kidnapping his little princess. Take. Your. Pick."

Frisk looked at the man on the ground and pulled a piece of Monster Candy out of his pocket, putting it in the man's mouth. His leg knit back together and he was able to sit up.

He looked up at the teen. "What was that?"

"Monster Candy. Monster food heals humans."

"It does?"

"Yeah." Frisk looked confused. "How do you not know that?" He gave the man another piece, healing his arm. 

I sighed. "You got this, G?"

"*Yeah. I'll call Undyne to come and give me a hand." He looked over his shoulder at Cross and I. "*Thanks for the hand."

Cross and I both nodded. I put a hand on Cross' shoulder.

He stopped me before I could teleport. "I need to grab the camera and motion sensor from the Lab. Like G said. They are expensive."

I short cut us back to the Lab for a quick retrieval before dropping him back at the cabin. 

He handed me his equipment bag. "Remind me to show Church the pictures I took when she's feeling better."

"Sure thing." I short cut back to the Foundation equipment room and dropped the bag on the shelf in a spot made for him, but was yet to be labelled. I looked at my phone. Dinner time. I stopped in my room just long enough to change my shirt before heading over to Frisk's apartment. 

Red was sitting on the couch, Frisk's sleeping head resting on a pillow in his lap. He absently petted her hair while reading a book. She was wearing my shirt and hoodie.

"Hey, Red. How's she doing?"

He looked up from his book. "*sugar plum hasn't been vomiting like everyone else, but she's also been avoiding dairy. this is her second nap today."

I looked around. It was just the three of us. "Where's your sister?"

"*black called and asked her to make a few deliveries for him."

"Are you hungry?"

"*nah. asriel ordered in a bunch of food for everyone who wasn't sick. you want your girl back?"

"Yeah." I turned Frisk blue and lifted her off of Red. 

He stood, stretching his leg bones and promptly sat in his customary chair near the sewing desk.

I sat down and let Frisk float gently back down to the couch. Once back in place, she inhaled deeply in her sleep, and reached under my shirt to lay her fingers against my spine with a sigh. I gently pushed her hair away from her face. "Sleep in heavenly peas, Babe."

She swatted at me weakly.


	4. Ep 4 - Fell Frisk's Delivery Service

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: Dragon Sans is inspired by the lovely art work of Roman-Kun. Check out her G!Sans on tumblr. Error!Sans belongs to Lover of Piggies/Crayon Queen. D and Fell!Frisk hop several AUs here! From the top: White is a human theory Sans and one of my creations. The Nightmare world is UnderLore, one of my AUs. King Chara's timeline is talked about in the first Core Issues. Dr. Papyrus' timeline was created off the cuff and not an official AU. Piratetale belongs to ask-friskandskelebros!
> 
> 1\. My beta has claimed this as his favorite episode so far.   
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence. Alcohol use by adults appears in the episode.  
> 3\. To avoid confusion outright, Dragon Sans, is our narrator.

Core Issues: Season Two  
by Nicolle

Ep. 4 - Fell Frisk's Delivery Service (D, Dragon Sans, is our narrator.)

Music can surround you. Hold you. Fill you up. 

I sang along as my phalanges flew over the ivories. Papyrus' violin followed a song we both knew too well from too long ago. It provided a reprieve from my worries and the sinking feeling deep in my bones that something was very, very wrong. 

Not here. But somewhere, something was awfully wrong and what eluded me.

I sank deeper into the music. Into the cacophony created by the walls and angles of this cabin that had become our home. The sound bouncing off pictures that both reminded us of Frisk's problems and gave us hope that they could be solved. 

Frisk was gone on a mission with Bones. A nervous tremor went down my vertebrae at the thought and I pushed it away. Everyday he was better. Every day he was more the person I wished I'd met outside the Ruins instead of wreckage I greeted. A grown man with more problems than I knew what to do with. I knew I would feel better if Bone's Frisk was with them, but her illness meant she wasn't going anywhere. Papyrus and I had visited her later in the morning while Mettaton and Napstablook entertained us with a new they'd been working on. She'd been miserable, but happy for the company.

My phone rang and the music stopped. It was one of Blue's phones. Specially made by his Alphys, they could reach across time and space to keep us all connected. Though Frisk hadn't decided whether or not to reset, I'd taken the offered phone without hesitation. 

Papyrus leaned over me to look at my phone. "WHO IS IT?"

"*Red's little sister," I answered. I unlocked the phone. "Hey, Frisk! How are you?"

"Good! Kind of. I'm making deliveries for Black and he said to call you if I needed anything. I'm in King Chara's timeline and when we got here, we switched species. I'm currently a chimera type. Would you mind being a test subject? I want to know if the anomaly is just centered on Asriel and I or if it will affect others."

"*Oh dear." There was this strange warmth that rose in my soul when she spoke. She thought nothing of asking such strange things of others because she would easily do them herself if asked. Such an unusual mixture of fearlessness and frivolity. Nothing phased her and she rarely missed a beat. I sighed and caught my brother's smile from the corner of my eye. We were both growing quiet attached to our new friends. 

"*I'll be there in a moment." I hung up and scrolled through a file of timelines and the equations necessary to get to them. "*I'll be back in a bit."

"WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO HAVE DINNER READY?"

"*Flamiche and tarte tatin?"

Papyrus rolled his yellow eye with a smile. "YOU'RE REQUESTS ARE SO VERY PREDICTABLE."

"*And a glass of white sauce?"

He smiled and waved me off. I stepped backwards, falling into the void, and immediately had to adjust so as not to fall into a blue string strung taut between two impossibly distant points. I stopped for a moment to look at it, frowning. I moved around it, heading on to King Chara's timeline. Before stepping into the timeline, I took a deep breath to prepare myself for the inevitable physical change. I stepped in, next to Red's little sister.

The change was immediate. There was no transformation. Just a sudden shift from skeleton monster to human. Well human with a large weight on my back. Wings. I had wings. I wondered how the anomaly would compensate for the extra mass hidden within the void space in my being. 

"That is legitimately cool," King Chara said, checking out my wings. He stood next to a human Asriel who was busy pulling on a pair of jeans and t-shirt. Flowey had become a very tall, very pale, human. Black lines rose up around his cheeks and white hair fell around red shadowed, bright yellow eyes. Frisk blushed and looked away from him, but not in embarrassment. It was the same look Bone's Frisk sometimes gave Bones. 

Red's little sister was in love. 

I smiled at the thought and flapped my wings for a moment, stretching them. It was not unlike the wings of my dragon form. I stepped into the void again and came back. "*When I leave the timeline, I return to normal." I stretched and twisted my back a little to adjust for the weight of my wings.

Frisk reached up to touch my face and stopped, arm dropping like it was suddenly too heavy. "You've got scars on your face to match the cracks in your skull."

I took her hand in mine and laid the other on the top of her head. She looked like she was struggling under the light weight. "*You need a nap."

"I'm fine," Frisk said. Her nap alarm on her phone went off and she suddenly looked like she was going to pass out.

Asriel put an arm around around her. "Got a guest bed or a couch Frisk can crash on?"

"Deliveries," she mumbled.

Chara shook his head. "After you've gotten some sleep. Follow me."

"Thank you, Sans" she mumbled.

I sighed and followed as Chara led us to a guest room. Asriel tucked Frisk, already deeply asleep, into the bed before sitting on the edge.

"*She hasn't passed out like this in a very long time. What's up?"

Frisk's eyes opened, glowing a blood red, her Chara's voice fell from her lips. "In the last world we visited, we were attacked. And even though the strikes broke off her barrier without harming anyone, they just seemed to suck her energy away." The red faded back to brown and her eyes shut completely.

"*Vampiric attacks?" I frowned. "*Have you run into anything else strange?"

"In White's timeline, water was turning to lava," Asriel supplied.

I nodded. "*I'll go check both places out while Frisk naps. Did she write the equations on her arms?"

Asriel carefully pulled Frisk's sleeve back so I could have a look. I took a picture of the equations with my phone. 

Asriel gently touched Frisk's face, pushing her hair back. "I'll stay with Frisk."

"*Can I trust you to be alone with her?"

Embarrassment gripped Asriel and he turned bright red. "Oh no! I'm not... We aren't... I mean..." He stumbled over his words for a moment before sighing. "Frisk doesn't know."

I patted him on the shoulder. "*Calm down. I'm just razzing you."

He frowned. 

"*Those clothes do fit you rather well."

King Chara snorted. "They do, don't they. Interesting that Frisk just happened to have some on hand." He smiled and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "You can switch between your flower and your goat form."

Asriel looked at him. "Yes. Please don't tell, Sans."

Chara raised an eyebrow at him. "Red is a genius and hyper vigilant. There is no way he doesn't know. If he hasn't said anything, it's because he's fine with it." He shifted a little and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "So are you harboring someone else's soul?"

"No. I didn't die in our timeline. Alphys turned me into a flower as punishment for trying to free Chara from the Lab. That's when Dad threw Mom out of the castle, for breeding a weakling. She took me with her to the Ruins when she left and planted me on Chara's grave. It took me decades to figure out how to change back." He laid down on his back next to Frisk, staring at the ceiling. "I'm going to nap too. It's easier for Frisk if I'm always well rested."

Chara shrugged and gestured for me to exit the room first. Once the door was shut, he chuckled. "Well now. That was certainly interesting!"

"*A good laugh for you at least."

He smiled. "Eh. They'll be fine. Frisk won't be considered an adult in her world until she's twenty-two. That's plenty of time for them to sort themselves out. Do you want me to have them hang for when you get back?"

"*Please. I'll accompany them on the rest of the deliveries."

Chara nodded and I fell backward into the void, being careful to look for the blue lines. I spotted one near me and three in the distance. I touched down in White's timeline inside Waterfall. White was staring at the lava flowing in the river, scratching the back of his head.

"*Any idea what's going on?"

"No clue," White answered. "I have no freaking clue. If I go up stream a bit, it's water. Go down stream a bit, water again. But right here in the middle is lava." He put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. "At first I thought it was a prank. Some kid tossing some illusion magic around, but this is the real deal. And I have no idea how it happened. It's an actual anomaly."

"*Can you fix it?"

"I'm going to call Fase to find out what she sees. That might let me fix it. If that doesn't help, I'll ask Frisk to access his save and see if this repeats itself or not." He looked at me. "Why are you here?" 

"*I'm helping out Red's little sister. Over in King Chara's timeline, she and Flowey switched species. She became a chimera type monster and Flowey turned into a human."

White's jaw dropped. "And you?"

"*Human with big dragon wings."

"Sweet." He rubbed his chin. "That's a serious anomaly."

I nodded. "*If you're good here, I'm going to check out Frisk's second stop. Her Chara said that they were hit with a strange attack."

White nodded. "I'll let you know how this turns out."

I moved to enter the void and stopped for a moment. "*There are blue lines in the void."

White froze and looked over his shoulder at me, eyes wide. "Fuck." He shuddered. "Be careful, man."

I nodded and entered the void. Four blue lines near me. Six in the distance. I ducked around the ones near me and headed toward my next destination. I stepped onto the snow covered, forest path to Snowdin. Glowing ghosts circled overhead, singing an eerie and especially lovely song. The trees twisted at impossible angles, casting shadows that could fool the easily startled into believing dead bodies hung from the branches. The air was positively ripe with fear and there was a deliciousness to it I hadn't expected. Like I was remembering spooky stories around a campfire or feeling nostalgic about a book of terrifying folklore read on rainy day long past.

Forgoing a short cut, I walked down the path, enjoying the tingling feeling in my bones that something scary was waiting for me. The anticipation of a 'bad' time making my eye glow brightly. Footsteps crunched the snow behind me and I shivered as I smiled. I stopped at the gated bridge and wondered if this is what it felt like to be Frisk. To be stopped at the bridge, knowing something is behind you, and remembering all the warnings received before leaving the Ruins.

"*hey bud. what's a pretty boy like you doing in an ugly place like this?"

I turned and looked into the face of an absolutely massive Sans. He easily had three feet in height on me, but his head drooped down a foot and a half from the top of his shoulders. He looked like he was half melted, but not in the way a monster with Determination melted. It seemed like his natural state. His jaw opened impossibly wide, mouth lined with too many normal looking teeth, and long, thick, human looking tongue drooped from his mouth. I wasn't sure he could close his mouth at all from the angle of his jaw.

"*Hey, Sans. I'm stopping by to check up on a possible anomaly."

"*the only anomaly today was the little squirt that tossed a peppermint in my mouth earlier. still haven't found her."

I chuckled. "*Did she have long gray hair and a flower monster on her shoulder?"

"*yep."

"*That was Red's Frisk."

"*no shit! really? ah man! now I feel bad."

I cocked my head to the side. "*Why?"

"*papy thought I was being attacked and threw a strike at her. it glanced right off her bone barrier." He gestured behind me and an impossibly tall revenant was shambling down the path toward the bridge. Papyrus' skin clung tightly to his bones except over his belly where it hung huge and distended. His head from just above the mouth up was missing, the skull hallowed out.

"*Hey Papyrus!"

"Is my brother pranking me across space and time again?"

Sans shook his head, tongue flailing. "*nah. so why was the kid here?"

I watched a rabbit head float across the path with entrails hanging out of it's neck. "*I believe she was delivering medicine for your Frisk from Black. He's an elderly man now, correct?"

Both monsters nodded. I turned to Papyrus as he nimbly stepped over the gate. "*Are your attacks vampiric in nature?"

"No."

"*why?"

"Red's Frisk collapsed at her next destination in a way she hasn't in years. Her Chara said that Papyrus' attack seemed to suck energy from her."

Both brothers looked at each other. Well, I assumed they did. Papyrus lacked eyes after all.

"I did not truly harm her, did I?"

I shook my head. "*Nothing a nap won't cure. I'll put up a barrier. Send a strike at it. Let's see what happens." My eye activated and a line of yellow bones rose from the ground between Papyrus and I.

Papyrus's strike crashed against the barrier. The barrier neutralized the attack but I felt like I'd been hit with a ton of bricks. I put a hand on the gate to steady myself. 

"*Okay. Your attack is definitely sucking energy out of your opponents. Do you feel energized at all?"

Papyrus shook his head. Jaw. The part of his head that was actually there. "Nothing."

I scratched the back of my skull. "*Well. I'll put this on the list of things to call Fase about. Thanks for your time, guys."

"Goodbye."

"*later, bud."

I stepped into the void. Two blue lines near me. Eight far away. I stepped back into the hallway of King Chara's home. Despite centuries of wealth at his disposal, Chara still kept the Dreemurr home as it always had been. Though the room that had long been under renovation in so many timelines was the guest room Red's kiddo and Asriel were in right now. I could hear a quiet conversation from the living room. An unearthly voice paired with a sweet one: mage Frisk and G.

I knocked on the door to the room softly and did not get an answer. I opened the door quietly to have a look inside. Frisk and Asriel lay on their backs next to each other deeply asleep, her right hand firmly clasped in his left. I shut the door and headed down the hall to the living room. G and his Frisk sat across the table from each other, Chara napping in the chair next to the fire.

When Frisk saw me, she jumped out of her chair to hug me tightly. "D! How are you?"

I hugged her back. "*A bit tired from the last timeline, but otherwise all right."

She stepped back a bit, arms still around my neck, to look me in the eyes. Well the one eye. I think. Huh. I hadn't actually looked at myself. "Your Frisk is shaping up, right?"

I sighed. "*He seems to be. I thought at first that he was copying Bone's Frisk, but now I realize that they are both extremely alike."

"Is that a good sign or a bad one?"

I shrugged.

"Hands off my Frisk," Chara grumbled from his chair.

Frisk suddenly hugged me tightly. I couldn't see her face, but I was sure she was sticking her tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes and stood when she let go of me. "So what's the news?"

"*The news seems to be, 'Call Fase for a check.' White thought his problem was an illusion prank but it's an outright anomaly. The nightmare world Papyrus had no idea that his attacks were causing energy drain. And Red should really be proud of his sister. I felt what she got hit with and it knocked me something fierce." I rolled my shoulders, adjusting the weight of the wings. "*It's no wonder she just passed out."

"*Speak of the Devil," G said. 

I turned and Frisk was sleepily coming down the hall, Asriel following. She sat across from G, laying her head on the table, and looking up at him with a smile.

"Hey, G!"

He tickled her snout with one boney finger. "*Hey there, kiddo! Feel better?"

"Yes. Decidedly."

"*How many deliveries left?" I asked.

Asriel sat down next to his Frisk. "Two."

"Two after this," Frisk said. She pulled an envelope out of her bag and handed it to Chara's Frisk. She opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers. She looked at them for a moment before signing off on the delivery.

"*I'll be coming along for both. I'm worried about the anomalies we're seeing combined with the blue lines."

"*Blue Lines?!" G looked at me.

I nodded.

G reached into a rift, pulling a bottle of vodka from his home in Snowdin. He pulled the cap off and chugged the half the bottle in one go. 

His Frisk grabbed his arm. "Sans!" She pulled the bottle from him, shaking a little from shock.

Chara stared, mouth agape at the sight of G, a stable rock of a Sans, just completely unable to handle something.

"*I can't go through that again," he managed. Yeah. Right there with you, buddy.

Red's Frisk sat up straight and looked at me. "What is he talking about?"

"*There's a powerful Sans that lives in the void. He's an insane and glitched out mess that tries to destroy timelines he sees as anomalies. The blue lines in the void are his. Most Sans-es were involved in fighting him a long time ago. We thought the fight was lost when he grabbed Blue. And then it was over. He just retreated into the void." I stared at the vodka for a minute and thought better of it. "*Now that we know that Blue has absorbed the Prime Frisk, it makes sense. The Error Sans doesn't touch human souls and he had full contact with the original Frisk. Since then, we occasionally see the lines, but nothing to out of the ordinary."

"Great. We take care of Cross and now this." Chara inhaled deeply, annoyed. "Is it possible that his activity is causing anomalies?"

"*It might be."

Frisk sighed. "Then we should hurry to finish the deliveries." 

She stood and Asriel hooked a finger in a belt loop on her jeans, forcing her to sit back down. "After you eat."

"Agreed," Chara said. He disappeared into the kitchen and came out with a plate of sandwiches. He set it in front of Frisk. "Eat up you two. Or is it three? Do you need to eat for your Chara?"

Frisk shook her head and grabbed a sandwich. "Thank you."

Chara nodded. He gestured to the food. "D?"

"*My brother has promised me my favorite meal. I can wait." I grabbed G's arm, putting it over my shoulder and lifting him from his chair. He clung to me miserably. "*I'm taking you home." I short cut the two of us to Snowdin and knocked on the door to the house G shared with his brother. 

Papyrus opened the door with a bright smile that turned into a terrible frown. "What happened?!"

"*Shock from potentially bad news. Just tuck him in bed for the afternoon. He'll be fine once it sinks in."

Papyrus picked his brother up and there was something in the way he looked at G that made me shiver. "Thank you for bringing him home."

"*He'll be all right. Promise." 

I short cut back to Chara's place as Papyrus shut the door. Frisk was wiping her mouth as Asriel finished his last bite.

I looked to Chara and his Frisk. "*Is it just me or is something really off about G's brother?"

"It's not just you," both Frisks said. Chara and Asriel both nodded. 

"Never ask about how they figured out how to stop the essence bleed," Asriel said. "Just don't."

His Frisk squeezed her eyes shut. "That one went right on the top five list of things I never want to talk about again. Ever."

Asriel stood. "Let's move on before I lose the lunch I just finished."

"Right behind you!" Frisk stood. "Thank you, Chara."

He smiled. "You're welcome. I'll call Fase and see if we can get any info on the species switching."

I nodded. "*Thank you." I looked at the kids. Well, that wasn't fair. Asriel was easily a hundred years old and Frisk was rapidly approaching eighteen. Life in a Fell world matured you very quickly. "*Stand together you two." 

I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures of the two and some selfies of the three of us with mage Frisk giving us bunny ears. Red would appreciate the pics. My brother and Frisk would get a kick out of the selfie. I was learning, as my Frisk would often say, that there was always time for a photo. 

I stared at myself for a moment. I was pale and white haired, scarred in the same way my skull was cracked. But my eyes were strange. Both sclera were black as pitch. My left eye had a glowing yellow iris. Even though I was human, I still retained the essential points of how I 'looked.' I stuffed my phone in my pocket.

"Where are we heading next?"

Frisk shouldered her bag and pulled her sleeve back to look at the equations. "It's a world were all the monsters involved with opening the barrier are long gone. Monsters live on the surface but in highly segregated areas away from humans. We are looking for a Dr. Papyrus, named after Papyrus the Great. Black said she was a descendant."

"*Let's go then."

Asriel put both hands on one of Frisk's shoulders and she stepped into the void. I followed and we stood in emptiness. We had returned to normal, Flowey sitting on Frisk's shoulder.

"The lines are everywhere now," Frisk whispered.

"*You saw them earlier?"

"Yeah. Five of them total. This is way more than I've ever seen."

Blue lines crossed near us, but did not impede our travel. Multiple lines crossed far from us. 

"The most I've ever seen before is two and both where super far away. When I first saw one years ago, I tried to touch it. Blue appeared out of no where and stopped me. He told me never to touch the lines. That danger lay on either end."

We moved quickly for the next timeline and landed on a midday, small city street, pleasantly lined with trees. Monsters filled the sidewalks heading to and fro. Asking around got us directions to Dr. Papyrus' clinic. Inside, an overworked nurse gestured for us to take a seat while she sorted through a room full of sick monsters.

A tall, female revenant in a blue blouse, black skirt, and white lab coat came out of the back office to see us. Her thin gray hair was twisted into a bun on her head. Where her flesh wasn't already thin, bone poked through, and she lacked a nose.

"Hey Doc! Why are you seeing a human before us monsters? I've been waiting for an hour!"

"Yeah! What's up with that?"

"Aren't we treated badly enough by the humans?"

The doctor drew herself up to her full height and glared at the assembled. "This human has brought the medicines you all need. Now you can choose to be quiet or you can leave." She turned back to us. "You're W.D. Gaster's daughter, correct?"

A murmur went through the monsters. They were openly staring at us now. Whispers of 'Gaster' and 'boss monster' floated through the group.

Frisk nodded. "Yes."

"So you have experience in his lab?"

She smiled. "Of course!"

"Then I would appreciate your help in the back."

She eyed me. "Ah. One of the stud Sans-es. What's your background besides being able to sleep anywhere and seduce anyone?"

Frisk giggled and I raised a brow bone at her. "Chemistry."

"Then I would appreciate your help too."

I nodded and stood, Frisk standing next to me. We followed the doctor into the back and she set us to work with Black's package. Monsters lined up at the big picture window that looked in on the back to watch us work. As we finished each prep, the nurse would call the monster who needed it in to administer. Between the three of us, we made short work of the crowd, and a complete mess of the lab.

The crowd watched even after we'd finished. Dr. Papyrus gave us a smile. Something I was sure was a rare occurrence.

"Thank you for your assistance."

Frisk nodded as she pulled down her surgical mask. She'd drawn a big smile on it with one bright yellow fang before putting it on to start. I'd snapped a picture of that too. 

"Sure thing!"

"I apologize for the rudeness earlier. It is hard for us here."

Frisk shook her head. "No biggie." Her left eye activated, turning a glowing red. She motioned with her left hand and the mess in the lab started organizing itself back into place. The monsters at the window where gasping, staring in rapt attention. 

"Don't tax yourself too much," I said.

"No worries. The nap really helped me out."

"You're showing off!" Flowey fumed. 

Her eye returned to normal. "I'm not doing anything I don't do back home to help out," she huffed.

"You've done more than enough," Dr. Papyrus said. "Thank you again."

"Well," I started, "One package left. Where are we heading?"

"A pirate timeline!" Frisk hopped up and down as she said it. "It's so cool! We're going to an island to deliver a package to their Gaster." 

"You should head off then," the Doctor said.

Frisk pulled her sleeve back and looked over the equations. "Ready?"

I nodded and we disappeared into the void. The blue lines seemed further away this time. We hurried to the pirate timeline, landing on a beach of soft sand. Frisk pulled a map from her back pack and oriented it according to her compass. We followed the map into a jungle from the beach looking for the home of the witch doctor, W.D. Gaster. It wasn't long before we found a beautiful house painted a bright and clean white with a brown tiled roof.

Frisk knocked at the door. "Dr. Gaster? I'm here with a delivery from Black!"

There wasn't an answer. I carefully pushed the door open. Inside, the house had intricately tiled floors and beautiful, dark wood furniture. Frisk followed as we search the house only to find it empty. Going out on the back veranda, I spied a large shed with the door hanging open. As Frisk and I approached a leopard fell out of a tree next to us. It landed on it's side, obviously hurt. Frisk ran over.

"*Woah! Wait!" I collared her by the back of her sweater. "Hold up, Frisk! That's not just any kind of wild animal. It's a big cat! It can seriously hurt you."

"I know! But I just can't leave it!"

"Don't run in. Approach cautiously. It's hurt, so it may lash out at you."

Frisk crept up to it and carefully knelt. She held out her hand, letting the animal sniff it. "It's okay. I can help you." She pulled out a piece of monster candy and put it near the leopard's mouth. It sniffed it before pulling the candy into its mouth with its tongue. It shivered and rolled to its feet, looking at her. It turned and ran off into the jungle again. 

Frisk stood, brushing off her jeans.

I patted her shoulder. "Good job, kiddo. Just slow up. No need to rush."

We went over to the shed. The primitive lab inside was a mess. Someone had wrecked it fierce.

"Do you think someone attacked him?" Frisk asked.

"*Maybe. Let's look around and see if we can find anything."

I returned to the yard looking for anything that looked like a clue. Nothing.

The leopard's head poked out of the edge of the yard. It waited until it had our attention before turning into the jungle.

"Should we follow?"

"*I've got nothing else to go on so let's see if it takes us somewhere." 

We followed the leopard through the jungle along a path that had obvious footprints to follow once you were on it. The leopard stopped behind a very leafy bush. Frisk and I knelt and looked through the leaves. We could see Gaster held inside what appeared to be a bubble of magic. He looked very uncomfortable, but otherwise unharmed. Whoever had put him in the bubble was no where to be seen. Frisk and I crept out into the clearing. Gaster caught sight of us and looked relieved for a moment before panicking, pushing against the bubble he was caught in. He shouted, but we couldn't hear him through the bubble. I looked for whatever Gaster was seeing and saw nothing.

I held up my hand and looked through the hole, using the void as a lens. Too late I saw it. An aberration in code smacked into Frisk. She fell.

And was caught by a young man who resembled her like a twin all the way down to an exact copy of the black and red striped sweater she wore, if not for his blood red eyes. 

It was her Chara. Flowey stared at his long dead brother now given flesh. 

She sat up suddenly and grabbed her head, eyes wide in panic. "CHARA?! CHARA?!"

He grabbed her hands, pulling them to his chest. "I'm here, Frisk! I'm here!"

Frisk looked at him, but didn't seem to see him. "It's so empty! Where are you? Where have you gone?!"

Flowey wrapped his vines around her. "Frisk! Frisk! He's right in front of you!" 

I knelt next to Frisk, waving a boney hand in front of her. Her eyes followed my hand. She could see. She just wasn't processing the information in front of her. I put a hand on the back of her neck and leaned her toward me. I whispered in her ear, sinking deeply into Gaster speak. Calmly explaining over and over that she had been hit by an anomaly, it had separated Chara from her, and he was still here. The leopard pawed at her leg while she calmed down. 

She blinked a few times, before her eyes registered that someone was sitting in front of her. Before her mind registered that someone was holding her hands.

"I'm right here, Frisk."

Frisk trembled, her face a mask of sorrow. He pulled her close and she cried against his chest. 

I turned to Gaster, who looked deeply worried. I walked around the bubble looking for the weak point in the spell. I found it quickly and released Gaster from his confinement.

"*Are you all right?"

"I am now. But what of the child? What has happened to her?"

I looked back at the three. "*The young man who appeared out of no where is dead. His soul resided in her body. He's possessed her for most of her life."

Flowey and Chara held her tightly while the leopard continued to paw at her.

"Ah. It seems you found my friend," Gaster said.

Frisk looked up at him. "The leopard?"

He knelt next to her, petting the leopard. "The man who kidnapped me had hurt her. It seems you've healed her."

Frisk smiled weakly and pet the leopard. It crawled up into her lap. Frisk held her head in her hands. "It's so quiet. So empty."

"We'll fix it," Chara said.

"But, you have a body of your own now," she whispered.

Chara looked at his hands. "My own body..."

Flowey put one of his leaves on either of their shoulders. "Let's finish the delivery and then we can figure this out. Okay?"

They both nodded. 

Frisk gently petted the leopard for a minute before standing on unsteady legs. Chara put his arm around her waist, helping Frisk keep her feet. I gestured for Gaster to lead the way and he took us back to his house. The leopard followed us, jumping from branch to branch in the trees overhead. Back at the house, Gaster sat Frisk in a chair on the veranda before pouring her a glass of juice. The leopard climbed up, lying on a banister in the sun.

Flowey open Frisk's bag and handed the last package to Gaster. He looked over the contents and signed off. Flowey sighed as he stuffed the papers back in the pack.

I knelt in front of Frisk, looking her over. She looked several shades of miserable, but physically looked fine. I looked at her through my hand, lensing the void again. I could see the anomaly clinging to her, keeping her and Chara separated. I touched her hand and felt an immediate surge from the well of her magic. Without Chara's possession, the power flowed freely through her the same way if flowed freely through mage Frisk.

"*How do you feel?"

"Alone," she whispered. 

I laid a hand on the side of her face and she leaned against it. "*The anomaly is clinging to you and I don't know how to remove it. We're going to have to see someone who can."

She looked at Chara. "Maybe it's better if it stays."

Chara frowned. 

Gaster took her hand. "Dear child..."

"Who kidnapped you?" she asked.

He blinked a few times. "Not important right now."

"Yes it is. If we can't fix my problem we can at least work on yours." I could see it in her eyes. Her determination was taking over, pushing her forward. She looked at Gaster. "What's going on?"

Gaster sighed. "A rival group of pirates have been harassing my sons' ship. They thought to kidnap me as leverage. I was caught off guard when they grabbed me, but I will be ready the next time."

The leopard was suddenly on its feet, back arched, hissing.

"*The next time appears to be now," I said.

Several monster pirates came out of the jungles surrounding the house. 

"Well now, Doctor! I didn't expect you to have so many friends! But don't worry. We'll make short work of them."

"You caught me unawares last time," Gaster glowered. "But it will not happen again."

"Ah! The big, bad, witch doctor is gonna shake a chicken at us! Just come along quietly and maybe you'll get to see your boys again before we kill them."

Gaster raised a hand, summoning multiple Blasters. They let loose a massive, combined attack. 

The pirates scattered as Flowey pulled Frisk to the floor, wrapping her in vines. Shots were fired from the trees and I threw up a barrier around the veranda. Watching carefully, I found the shooters in the trees and sent bones strikes into them. A strange coldness came over me and I fell to my knees. Frisk reached out to squeeze my hand and sat up. She summoned several moving walls of bone, using them to enclose and trap the pirates. 

The captain figured out who was trapping his men and aimed for Frisk. I pulled her down as the leopard jumped in the way of his shot. It hit the ground heavily.

"No!" 

Frisk reached out and gently touched the leopard's head. It sighed contentedly, eyes closing. It's breathing stopped. Frisk put her head down, tears streaming down her face. 

"Crying over a wild animal? What a joke!"

She looked up, her left eye glowing a bright, angry red. She pushed me away, and the red glow surrounded her and the leopard's body. 

Chara and Flowey reached out to her and I pulled them away. "Stay back!" I hissed.

"What's happening?!" Chara yelled.

"She's creating a Blaster."

Frisk screamed, eyes squeezed shut as the mass of magical power overloaded her system and shot skyward. The leopard's skin ripped open and the skeleton leaped out. Frisk's eyes opened, sclera completely black, pupils little more than flames dancing in her eyes. She pointed toward the pirate. The newly made Gaster Blaster let loose a blast that dusted the captain and several of the pirates in one go. 

The remaining pirates retreated deep into the jungle. 

Frisk fell forward, arms wrapped around herself. "So cold," she whimpered.

Asriel changed to his goat form and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up into his lap. "You gained LV. It turns you cold. Access your save. We can start again from the beginning of the day."

She looked at Chara, her eyes brown again. He looked away.

"No. I can't."

Chara looked at her. "Frisk..." He covered his face with one hand. "I'm sorry."


	5. Ep. 5 - Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: Dragon Sans is inspired by the lovely art work of Roman-Kun. Check out her G!Sans on tumblr. Error!Sans and Fresh belongs to Lover of Piggies/Crayon Queen. The Blueberry of Underswap belongs to Morty. Outertale belongs to Mimi. Inktale belongs to Comyet. 
> 
> 1\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Core Issues: Season Two  
by Nicolle

Ep. 5 - Reunions

Frisk sat next to Chara on the examination table in the goat prince's lab, the skull of a full body GB laying on her lap. Flowey looked furtively between Asriel and Dings while they examined the two. Red stood next to me, hands in his pockets, waiting. In the hall outside, my girl sat with D, surgical mask covering her mouth and nose, doing her best to help him cope with the sudden increase in his level. For his incredible age, he'd never gained any LOVE and that first hit had left him shivering. Cross sat with D, following Frisk's lead. His Papyrus stood at the window, watching the kids, worried.

Speaking of the kids, Frisk kept reaching over for Chara, touching his hand or arm to confirm that he was still there despite sitting next to him. At some point during the examination, he simply grabbed her hand and held it.

Dings frowned. "It appears that your body is a male replica of my daughter's without the stunted growth or the effects of nutrient deficiency. I suppose Frisk would be as tall as you are had she had her health from the beginning." He lifted a piece of Chara's long silver hair. "I suppose you'll want a haircut."

Chara pulled on a lock with one hand. "And a dye. I'd rather look more like myself. Or at least, how I remember."

Asriel looked at me. "How does the anomaly look now?"

I shook my skull. "It's completely dissipated. All that's left is the aftermath."

"Tell me your impression of it when you saw it," Dings asked.

"It was latched onto Frisk tightly. When I attempted to remove it, it wouldn't budge. It was connected to her very being in several places."

"Would you say the anomaly was made for her?" Cross asked from the hall.

I thought about it. "Yes."

Cross stood, coming to the window. "Fase said that the anomaly did not originate in the timeline. That means it was a targeted attack."

"Why would someone attack Frisk?" Flowey asked. "Recent events aside, she's never harmed anyone."

"She's a mathematical genius that can teleport, void travel, and use red magic. It's a potent combination," Cross answered.

Flowey shook his petals. "It still doesn't explain why someone would attack her."

Red jerked a boney thumb over his shoulder at Cross through the glass. "*it's the exact reason that piss ant kidnapped her. or did you forget that little episode?"

Flowey glared at him.

"Think back for a bit," Cross said. "There are a lot of anomalies happening. Starting with Iris, we've seen humans who were immune to magic and void magic shut down in a localized area. White's got a spatial problem where lava is replacing water. The nightmare world suddenly had attacks that acted in a vampiric fashion. There was the species switching in King Chara's timeline. I called Agent Helvetica back and he still doesn't know how the humans figured out how to get into the Lab, let alone have the information necessary to open the vault. That none of the evidence gives him a full picture and often contradicts itself."

Cross took a breath. "Fase hasn't contacted anyone about any of these. We've had to talk to her. That means that serious anomalies are slipping under her radar. There's something going on and isn't it interesting that the ones we've run into are happening in places where the Sans involved won't necessarily contact Blue? Even White was looking to solve the anomaly himself first. How many anomalies are we not seeing because the Sans involved doesn't want to spill? We have several unexplained anomalies and one is a direct attack on someone smart enough to figure out how to stop them."

Red looked through the window at him. "*that would mean that someone is behind the anomalies. that would take a sans."

"There are only a few of us that have the necessary knowledge to cause an anomaly in our own timeline," I said. "But someone else's? That narrows it down to no one."

"What about Error?" D asked. He was still staring at the floor.

"He could do it, but to go after a Frisk directly? He's never done that before. He's always avoided contact with human souls," I answered.

"Is it our best lead right now?" Cross asked.

I nodded.

Cross looked through the glass at Red. "When are you having all the Sans-es over to show off the collider?"

"*in two days."

My Sunflower perked up. "We can use the meet up to find out how many other anomalies are happening. Just by asking around." She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and rubbed her temples.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to bed?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not until we're somewhat sorted." She looked in on the kids. "How do you feel, Frisk?"

"Cold. Empty."

"Chara?"

Chara squeezed Frisk's hand. "I don't know." 

Red walked over to table, putting his arms around his sister. "*this too shall pass," he whispered. He looked at Chara. 

"What?"

Red shook his skull. "*just trying to figure out how i'm going to tell paps about all this."

Chara raised an eye brow. "You aren't worried about saying anything to Asgore or Toriel?"

"*i don't live with them, so no."

"What if Toriel wants Chara back?" Frisk whispered.

"I'm staying with you."

Red shrugged. "*tori knows she's in no condition to be a parent, but i do expect that she'll want to see the three of you. it might be a good time to tell your parents that you have your body back, asriel."

Flowey drooped as all eyes were suddenly on him.

"I told you he knew," Chara said.

"I was not aware of this," Dings glowered.

None of the three were intimidated. 

Dings smiled wryly and touched his daughter's head. "Even at your most distraught, I am no match for you, hm?" 

She reached up and kissed him on the side of his skull. The Blaster nuzzled her stomach.

Dings put a boney hand on the Blaster, smiling proudly. "What an amazing creation you have wrought. Much like my prototypes."

Pinprick red eyes watched Frisk with the same adoration all GB's exhibited toward their masters. There was a reason they acted so much like pets.

Frisk looked down at the skeletal leopard. "I didn't intend to make it. I just didn't think it was fair that she should die for me."

Dings laid his phalanges on the side of her face. "Why don't you three get something to eat and then we'll head home." He looked over at his son. "Do you want me to keep Chara at the Lab?"

Red shook his skull. "*frisk's room is plenty big enough for the three of them." He ruffled her hair. "*i doubt she'll let go of chara's hand anytime soon anyway. i'll convert the bed to bunks in the morning."

Flowey climbed up to Frisk's shoulder as she and Chara stood. Asriel took them down the hall, the Blaster following along dutifully. Red and Dings came into the hall.

"*I'm sorry."

Red put a hand on D's shoulder. "*it's not your fault and i'm not mad at you. i can't be mad at what is essentially me. i love me!"

D cracked a smile at that. "*How do you handle it? The cold?"

Red sighed. "*so long as you don't avoid your loved ones or isolate yourself. so long as you don't entertain the numbness or let it grow, you'll warm up." He gestured to Cross. "*if your frisk can handle the heavy load he's got, you can shoulder a small one." 

"*Will your sister be all right?"

"*she's my frisk. she'll adjust. she's spent nearly twelve years with chara in her head and while he's a prick, he does genuinely care for her. i'd be more worried if his soul had been destroyed instead." Red eyes turned to my girl. "*thanks for helping out, sugar plum. you should hit the hay."

"Going, Sans. Thank you."

He smiled at her before heading down the hall, his father with him, both talking quietly.

Cross pulled D up out of the chair. "Come on. It's late and the longer we take the colder your dinner is going to get. And Paps slaved over a hot stove for you."

I put an arm around Frisk, guiding her down the hall toward the stairs.

Cross looked at me as we headed down the hall. "I've got a question, Bones."

"Shoot."

"Why is Red perfectly fine with letting two boys stay in the same room as his little sister?"

I opened my mouth and thought better of my answer. "Hey, Babe. Would you mind fielding this one?"

Frisk snorted. "The short answer is that Chara and Flowey have lived with her since she was six years old so it's not really a change, but that really doesn't explain the complexity of the situation."

Cross waited.

"In Red's timeline, who you are loyal to and your willingness to back that up means more than anything else. Asriel and Chara have both demonstrated that their loyalty lies with Frisk. Red allowing them to remain together despite the change in circumstances is an acknowledgement of that loyalty."

"You know that's not the question I'm asking."

"I know, but that is the answer to the question."

"*Asriel's in love with her," D said.

I snorted. "Yeah. That's been obvious for a while now." 

"And Frisk is in love with him." Frisk looked at me with a wry smile. "They'll dance around each other for a few years while Chara teases them about it." 

C snorted from Frisk's comm.

I rolled my eyes at them. "And when Frisk gets close to her twenty second birthday, Red will tell Asriel to get his butt in gear and propose."

We stopped outside the door to Frisk's apartment. 

"Why the twenty second birthday?" Cross asked.

Frisk took a breath to speak and paused. "Politics."

"YOU BOTH HAVE A GOOD NIGHT."

"Good night," Frisk said.

The three shortcut away.

I leaned down a bit and nuzzled the side of her face. "Goodnight, Sunflower."

She grabbed a hold of my hand, squeezing my phalanges tightly. "Stay with me tonight. I feel awful and I want cuddles."

I smirked. "Yes, ma'am."

Frisk slept most of the next day and looked much better the morning of the collider presentation if a little pale. Rather than her uniform, she wore a layered dress in dark greens and browns very similar to the lighter ones she often wore, though this one lacked the lace. She looked like an elf that'd stepped out of the woods. When I hugged her, I felt her normal gear hidden underneath.

"How ya feeling?" Cross asked. 

"Better."

"Don't push it too hard today."

She eyed him. "You could come along."

"I am not walking into a lion's den. That's just not happening." He looked at me. "How many Sans-es are going to be there?"

I shrugged. "A lot. Red has them all cycling through at different times so they don't get overloaded."

"Did he remember to have the Blueberry there at the same time as Iris?" Frisk asked.

"Oh yeah."

"Those words made no sense," Cross muttered.

"Blueberry is the common nickname for a particularly adorable swap world Sans. Iris finds him irresistibly cute. He calls her his Queen of Edge," Frisk supplied.

"So they're seeing each other?"

I shook my skull. "Nope. They just enjoy hanging together. It's like your standard Papyrus and Undyne friendship." I put an arm around Frisk. "We'll be back." 

Cross gave us a half-hearted salute as I stepped Frisk into the void. She nestled against me tightly as I set us down outside the Lab in Red's timeline. Outside it was quiet but for the roar of lava. I grabbed the door and held it open just as our human Papyrus, Sans, and their mother Lucida appeared. Their monster Frisk, in all her black furred cuteness, sat on Papyrus' shoulder. I gave a little bow as I motioned for them to enter.

"Such a charmer!" Lucida said as she passed me, the smile on her face a bit uneven among her scars. Both brothers had covered their scars with bone masks.

Their Frisk jumped into my arms, hugging me something fierce. "Bones! I missed you!"

"Hey there, Cutie-Pie! How are you?"

"I'm good!" She sat back a little and frowned, licking her nose. "I heard that Red's Frisk wasn't doing so well. Is she okay? Can I help?"

"I think she'll be all right, but I'm sure she won't mind having a few extra Frisks around."

Papyrus touched my girl's forehead, before laying his hand on her shoulder. "You're pale. Getting over something?"

Frisk nodded, giving him a tired smile. "I was knocked completely out by the flu."

Sans put an arm around her shoulders. "How are things going with Cross? And when are you coming by again? I have a new jerk chicken recipe for you to try."

"Yes. We all know about you and your jerked chicken," Papyrus drawled. Frisk covered her mouth, unable to stop the laugh.

A red shadow came over Sans' eyes, but his smile only widened. "What was that, dear brother?"

Papyrus held up both hands in mock surrender only to have his mother swat him. He offered her his arm and we headed down to new basement level and the collider. As soon as we stepped off the elevator, Dings turned from his conversation to take Lucida's hand in his, drawing her fingers to the side of his skull. They disappeared into the elevator, a muffled thump coming from inside as soon as the door slid shut. 

"They didn't even wait until they got to the apartment," Sans sighed. 

Monster Frisk jumped from my arms to the floor. "Frisk! Frisk!" She ran over to Red's little sister, her silver hair now dark blue on the bottom like it'd been dipped in the dye.

The kiddo picked her up and snuggled her close. "Frisk!" They rubbed their faces against each other in large circles while Flowey ducked further down Frisk's arm to avoid being crushed.

"Are you okay? I heard something bad happened to you. Can I help?"

Frisk smiled. "I'll be all right."

Monster Frisk frowned and licked her nose. "You seem... lighter. Like something isn't there but not in a good way."

Frisk sighed as Chara stepped up to them, his hair dyed brown and cut short, the Delta Ruin embroidered on his sleeve. "This is my Chara."

"Hello, Frisk."

"You have a body!"

Chara nodded and caught her as she jumped into his arms. Papyrus and Sans looked at Frisk and I. 

Sans leaned in toward my girl. "What happened?!"

"An anomaly split them apart and it was only one of many they encountered while timeline hopping for Black," she said. "Bones and I are using the meet up to see what other anomalies are happening."

"What are you looking for specifically?" Papyrus asked.

"Anomalies in timelines with Sans-es who won't necessarily call for help," I answered. "The examples we have so far are wide ranging. We've seen spatial anomalies, magical anomalies, information anomalies, and species switching."

"Species switching?"

I pulled out my phone and flipped to the picture of Frisk, Asriel, and D standing together for a selfie. 

"Is that... D?" Sans asked.

"Yep."

"Fuck. He's hotter than me," Papyrus groaned.

"*I don't think so," Iris said, slapping him on the ass before putting an arm around his waist. "*How's my hot hot baby?"

Papyrus put an arm around her shoulders. "Pretty good. I heard you got the barrier open. So was it as bad as your Frisk kept hinting?"

"*War zone. The country was a mess. After reconnaissance and history fact checking, King Asgore took the country over and ended the war with several calculated strikes. We're rebuilding and it's going fairly well. The humans there are actually happy to have the big bad monsters around to protect them."

"So what did you find in the Lab when you cleaned it out?"

Iris looked around for a moment, making sure young ears weren't listening. "*We found no less than twenty three humans. All of them children. It looked like Alphys was injecting Daisy with a fuck ton of hormones so she'd have multiple kids in one go. How any of them survived past infancy without basic medical care is a complete mystery. The thing that chased us through the lab was the male clone and it was using her to breed food for himself."

"That's several levels of disgusting," Sans said. "So what's going to happen to the kids?"

"*The youngest is with Daisy. An infant girl she'd only just given birth too a few days before we got down there. The rest are currently wards of the state in a group home. Queen Toriel is coordinating the efforts to rehabilitate them. She's already received several requests to adopt. The kids aren't even remotely ready for that, but even when they are, we're waiting for Daisy to make that call."

"Daisy, huh?" Papyrus asked. "Would she be the reason you didn't like your original nickname?"

"*Like you ever used it," she said.

He shrugged and you could make out the sly smile behind his mask. "I like my nickname for you better."

Iris smiled and rolled her red eyes.

"How is Daisy?" I asked.

Her left eye turned white for a moment and then back to red. "*She's doing all right. She's in therapy, takes it day by day, and having the rest of us around seems to help."

She took a breath and let it out slowly. "*Everyday, I learn something new about her and it gets weirder and weirder." She looked from me to Papyrus and back. "*So Alphys is removed as Royal Scientist and the new guy, on finding out that Daisy is alive, asks if she would be willing to come back to the lab as his assistant. The records we got from Gaster's office talk about her superior skill in managing the lab. And everyone who worked for Gaster knew this and relied on her. Half of the staff quit over Alphys appointment because her first order of business was to experiment of the everyone's pet human. And not pet in the sexual way. Pet in the member of the family way."

Iris rubbed the sides of her skull. "*Anyway, Gaster..." She pointed to her skull, annoyed. "*Won't let her go back to the lab, so she's been living with Paps, Frisk, and I. The upshot of that is that Frisk is caught up to where she should be in her schooling, my house is always clean and organized so I don't have to to do shit when I get home, and she's been helping Paps in the office. He's been super relaxed since she's become his assistant and enjoys helping out with the baby."

"*Of course he might also be so relaxed because he's bending her over his desk most days at lunch." Iris suddenly looked deeply confused. "*And she's been fine with that." She shook her skull. "I don't know." She looked around. "*Where's my boyfriend?"

"Cheating on me already?" Papyrus sighed with mock sadness. 

Iris squeezed his butt hard enough to make him jump a little. "Never. I just haven't seen my little buddy in forever."

I shrugged. "We've only just arrived. If the Blueberry is here, he's likely already over at the staging area." 

Iris looked up at Papyrus. "See you later?"

He smiled and leaned his forehead against her skull. "Whenever you like, Hot Stuff."

She booped his nose before heading over to the staging area.

Frisk elbowed him in the side. "I was not aware you two were seeing each other."

Papyrus shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know that she's seeing me exactly, but she's so good, I'll take whatever she'll give me." He swatted his brother's shoulder. "I'm going to have a look for Black."

He nodded. "I'll keep an eye on Frisk."

Frisk put an arm around me. "Good in bed, huh?"

I smirked. "Of course she is! She's one of my variation!"

Her smile was almost too wide for her face. "Well... I wouldn't know..."

My eye sockets narrowed and I had to fight to hide my smile. I quick grabbed her and tickled her sides. 

"Ack! Help! Sans!"

He looked over from where he stood with Monster Frisk, just a hint of red in his eyes and his smile. "Yeah. No. You deserve that."

Red short cut to right next to us. "*you two need a room?"

I let Frisk go and she leaned against me, gasping for air. 

"We're good," I said.

"*great. cause i've got some interesting things to report." He handed a notebook to Frisk. "*i've found three universes with spatial anomalies like white's. It seems like save access puts them to rights. i have two universes with magic alterations and one with localized magic null. save access doesn't always fix those. i have four timelines with humans just randomly popping up in the underground and two with monsters appearing in human timelines. one entire timeline with species switching and one with people completely missing from the timeline altogether. "

Frisk stared at the paper with her mouth hanging open. "This is a ridiculous amount of anomalies. Where are they coming from?"

"*i was hoping techno-sans would show today so we could talk to him, but he's already told me that he and fase are swamped with new timelines appearing left and right. blue's being a lazy shit and just napping. you ask him about it and he'll just shrug. he didn't even budge at the mention of error being involved in some way."

"So why did he even show?" I asked.

Red nodded toward his little sister. "*frisk. he talked to her, chara, and asriel for a while. apparently, the prime frisk had a lot to say to mine."

"Is she doing better?" Frisk asked.

"*much better. after talking with the prime frisk they went to see asgore and tori. once the shock died down, asgore spoke with them individually and they've been mum on what was said." He looked over at the three. "*but knowing how asgore can be about making sure the dreemurrs keep the throne, i can make a really good guess." he frowned and then shrugged. "*since i started asking questions about anomalies, everyone's been comparing notes. i'm taking another tour around in..." He looked at his phone. "*a minute. i'll see you two later." Red short cut away.

"Ready?" I inclined my skull toward the staging area.

Frisk nodded. "I'm going to talk to the people Red has already hit and get a few more details."

"I'll hit everyone else. Anything you need me to be specific about?"

"I'm not sure yet. Get me as much detail as you can."

"Got it." 

We headed into the staging area. I spied Iris with the Blueberry. He was busy admonishing his orange hoodied brother from the top of her shoulders, which put them at roughly eye level. Our human Papyrus was talking with Black, another ghostly Sans I had yet to meet hovering with them. A group of scientist Sans-es were following Red down a corridor. 

A Sans in an overly fluffy blue and gold hoodie pulled on my sleeve. "*you're bones, right?"

"Yeah."

"*then i've a got a weird anomaly for you. technically, it's a spacial anomaly, but no amount of save access has fixed it. it simply happens again and again. entire areas of my timeline are being switched around and the people in them are randomly ending up in other places too. i started yesterday hanging with my brother in stardin and then suddenly in i'm tori's place with bratty and catty watching television. bratty and catty didn't even notice anything weird was happening until i pointed out that we weren't at mettaton's resort. after a few minutes, it was as if they'd forgotten where they were and acted as if they were right where they should have been."

His shoulders dropped. "*i don't know what to do and i don't want to ask frisk to reset in case it traps the anomalies in place."

"Have you contacted Fase?"

"*yes. and i'm queued. fase sounded really distressed when i talked to it. it's sans isn't even picking up the phone. all you hear is his metal fingers going all sonic the hedgehog on his keyboard." He looked around at the other Sans-es. "*since red started asking us about anomalies and we found out what happened to his sister, we've been waiting for you and your frisk to get here."

Several Sans-es were heading for us and multiple ones had gathered around Frisk. I looked around and spotted Ink.

"Hey! Inky! Can you get us some seating together? Something in a circle?"

"*huh? oh! yes!" He pulled his brush from his back and spun it, painting a circle of chairs, couches, and pillows of various sizes and shapes for the various Sans-es and Papyrus-es. He stood back for a moment, looking it over with a frown.

"Perfect. This is exactly what I wanted," I said.

His eyes went all starry and bright. "*REALLY?!?! i'm glad you like it!" True to form, his excitement washed over him, and he completely forgot what he'd been frowning about. He plopped down on one of the pillows and everyone began filing over to take a seat.

One of the big nightmare Sans-es went over to the couch Iris sat on with the Blueberry and his brother, Papyrus. He picked the Blueberry up one handed and tossed him casually to the side before plopping down next her. Iris glared and Papyrus' eye began to glow a mean orange.

Our human Sans sat down next to me with a wicked grin. "Oh. Bad move, Hodad. You don't drop in on someone else's wave."

The Blueberry picked himself up, dusted himself off, and walked over to the nightmare Sans with a smile. He lifted the massive Sans with one hand and sent him flying to the back of the room. "I AM SMALL, BUT MIGHTY!!!"

Iris picked him up and sat him back down next to her. "*Thanks, Cutie."

"ANYTIME!"

My Frisk sat down on a pillow in front of me, our human Papyrus next to her, his Frisk hopping into his lap. Red's Frisk plopped down next to Ink and Chara next to her. White appeared and sat on the other side of our human Sans. They fist bumped before settling in.

Once every one was seated, Frisk set the notebook down in front of her and pulled out her notes. "We have multiple anomalous events across multiple timelines. All of these anomalies are considerably different from what we've seen in the past were you would get a visit from Seraph Foundation agents to help set it to rights. As of right now, we have no idea what's causing them, but after the anomaly that attacked Frisk--" She inclined her head toward Red's sister. "We are inclined to believe that someone is causing the anomalies."

"COULD IT BE FRESH?" 

Blue shook his head. "*no. the virus that was fresh is gone for good."

"How?" White asked.

"*he was trapped without a host in an isolated part of the void. he didn't survive for long after that."

Red came in with the group of scientist Sans-es and sat next to Blue, the rest of the Sans filtering into empty seats.

"What if Error is behind all this? His lines are everywhere out there!" one of the scientists groaned.

"*Based on the past, Error sought to destroy anomalies by taking out timelines he felt were anomalous. In doing so, he created anomalies very similar to what we are seeing right now," Iris said. 

"*he saw all timelines as anomalous," our fluffy coated Sans grumbled.

"*he also hasn't done shit since contact with the prime frisk." Red looked at Blue. "*jackass."

Blue shrugged.

"*what? nothing to add?"

Blue closed his eye sockets for a moment, phalanges to his sternum. "*frisk doesn't think error is causing the anomalies."

One of Red's variations spoke up. "Then who the fuck is? Who else has the ability to fuck with other timelines?"

C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder. "Fase does."

Everyone burst out laughing.

"*As creepy as Fase is, I seriously doubt she would ever hurt anyone," a mob variation chuckled.

"Laugh it up, Boneheads. I'm making a point here. How many A.I. Frisks are there? And how many A.I. Chara's?"

Blue shrugged. "*there are four other a.i. frisks. none of them have fase's unique ability to spread themselves across timelines."

"What about A.I. Charas?"

Blue looked to the side. "a.i. charas are associated with human frisks and need a host. the only one ever encountered that can spread themselves across timelines is you. that ability is something granted by the unique fusion of your soul to your brother's tech."

"So we're back to Error again," White groaned. "I really can't go through a repeat."

"*technically, four-peat. but who's counting?"

Blue scrunched down into his hoodies as everyone glared in his direction. 

Red nudged Inky with his shoe. "*you ain't got something to add about your void twin?"

Inky looked up suddenly. "*what?"

Red's sister giggled. "He's been creating another timeline while we've all been sitting here."

Red rolled his eyes. "*great. hopefully it's one that can help us out."

The kiddo leaned over and looked at Inky's notebook. "What is she wearing...?" She squinted. "Oh! I thought she killed a unicorn."

The mob variation looked at her. "*After what happened to Red's little sister, maybe we should consider moving our Frisk's to other timelines as a stop gap."

"That won't necessarily work. The anomaly had been made for her, it would have followed her anywhere," I said.

"Even if you moved your Frisks, the only place they could go to be safe from anomalies is the Omega Timeline," the kiddo said. "Speaking for myself, it's a fun place to visit, but not to stay for extended periods of time."

My Sunflower snorted. "And exactly how many of you have Frisk's who would be willing to go?" She looked at the mob variation Sans. "Your Frisk would beat the crap out of you if you even tried to unload him for safe keeping."

He frowned but nodded in agreement. "*Maybe a former member of Midnight Collapse?"

Frisk shook her head. "There's only one left and Cross doesn't have anything close to that kind of skill set."

"So... What? Do we just wait for things to get worse?" White asked.

"*we wait for a break in our incoming information," Blue answered. "*we don't have enough to go on so we need to get the word out to everyone to report anomalies immediately, even if they're easily fixed." 

"*What? no god-like answers?" one of the scientists grumbled.

"*i have god-like power, bud. not omniscience." He looked to the side for a moment like he was listening to something before looking at my Frisk. "*we'll have fase compile the data for frisk and cross to look over."

"Why him?" one of the steam variations sneered.

"*because he doesn't think the same way the rest of us do and i'd rather he have something useful to do while he decides whether or not to reset."

Frisk nodded. "I agree. He's like me in that regard. He needs to feel like he's contributing, making a difference. That he didn't feel that way was how his Chara was able to convince him to destroy timelines. Okay. Anyone else?"

A variation of Red stood, phalanges buried deep in his pockets. "I'm missing three specific people from my timeline and they've been gone since the mass reset. My Frisk was one of the ones in the reset, but she accessed her save instead and we were able to stop Midnight Collapse and fix our timeline from there. But when we went to find our children and their grandmother, they were gone."

Frisk and I stared at him. 

"*take your hands out of your pockets, bud," Blue ordered.

The Sans pulled his hands out, revealing a robotic right arm. 

Frisk dropped her notes. "You're Verdana and Ravie's father..."

His Frisk shot out of her seat. "You know them? You've-- You've seen them?! Are they all right?"

Frisk and I looked at each other. 

"They're fine," I answered. I looked up at them. "But we need to talk."

Red stood, clapping his hands once. "*meeting adjourned! everyone else who has yet to have a tour head over the corridor." He looked at his sister. "*sweetheart? call fase and ask her to create a file to log all the anomalies. we'll have all sans-es and papyrus-es call her to report. we'll let her decide if an anomaly is severe enough that it should be queued. let her know that sugar blossom and the piss ant will need access to the log." 

"Got it." Frisk pulled out her phone. 

Red looked at me. "*good luck."

I motioned Sans Frisk over as I helped my girl stand. 

"Grab my photo album, please? The one I keep under the coffee table," Frisk asked.

Opened a rift and pulled the album through. She motioned for Sans and Frisk to sit and she knelt in front of them, placing the album in her Fell double's hands.

"Bones and I found your children and their grandmother just before your world collapsed. They've lived in our timeline since and it's been a long time." She opened the album and let them flip through the pictures of their children growing up. Birthdays. Recitals. Vacations. Graduations. Little moments in between.

Frisk looked between my Sunflower and I. "You became their parents?" 

"Your mother did the heavy lifting there. Frisk and I did what we could to make up for what was lost."

Sans turned a page and stared at Verdana in her wedding gown. "Look at her! My little princess is beautiful!" He wiped a tear from his eye socket and pointed at Vivi's husband, Noah. "Is he a good man? Does he take care of her?"

"Noah's a good man," I answered. I pulled out my phone and swiped to a picture I had taken at the shower. "Your first grandchild is due next month."

"No," Frisk said, tears streaming from her face. "Your grandchild." She put her head in her hands and wept. Sans put his arms around her. 

"Stop! Please!" My girl grabbed Frisk's hands, pulling them away from her face and holding them to her chest. "They want to see you. They've wondered aloud every time we see them if you might be out there, somewhere. Don't give them up." She pulled one of her lace hankies from a pocket and wiped Frisk's tears. She handed me the album before pulling them both up. "Come on."

"Carol's first?" I asked.

She nodded.

I took us to the small home with big yard in St. Canard's little suburb. I knocked on the door. "Hey, Carol! You home?"

Carol pulled the door open. "You hound! Since when do you ever knock? And where else would I be...?" She stopped. "Frisk? Honey? Is that you?"

Frisk nodded. 

Carol grabbed her daughter, hugging her fiercely. "Oh My God! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Hey, Gram? What's all the--" Ravie dropped his tablet and rushed into Sans' arms. "Dad! Dad!" 

Frisk pulled away from her mother and took her son's skull in her hands. "Look at you! You're all grown up."

Ravie latched on to her. "Oh Mom! I never gave up! I knew I'd see you again some day!"

I turned away for a moment and called Vivi. 

"Hey, Bones! What's up?"

"Are you done at work for the day?"

"Yeah. I'm home."

"I'll be there in a second to bring you to your grandmothers' place."

"Okay."

I short cut to the apartment Vivi shared with her husband. Noah was helping her stand from the kitchen table. 

Vivi smiled when she saw me. "So what's going on?" She blinked at me for a moment. "I've never seen that look on your face before. Is everything okay?"

I smiled and put an arm around her. "It's better if you see, but be prepared for a shock, okay?"

She smiled and put her arm around my shoulders. "Good shock?" 

"The best ever." I held out a hand to Noah and short cut us back to the house. Vivi smiled as she turned from me and paused, jaw dropping. 

"Mom! Dad!" She rushed to her parents, hugging them both as best she could. "I prayed every day that I would see you again! And now you're here! I have you back!"

I gestured for Noah to head over as my Sunflower put her arms around me. She sighed and put her head on my shoulder, watching our small family grow.


	6. Ep. 6 - Memory Glitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale, which is one of my AUs. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: Core!Frisk gets a mention in this episode. Core!Frisk belongs to Ivka/Doku.
> 
> 1\. Alexander Graham Bell. Ada Lovelace. Henri Poincare. Yeah. Fase names the A.I.'s she creates after a person famous for their specific function.
> 
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Core Issues: Season Two  
by Nicolle

Ep. 6 - Memory Glitch

Frisk hip tossed James into Undyne and dropped to the floor to avoid Cross' swing. Rolling to her feet, she backed up to give herself room. Undyne and James were quick to sort themselves out and flank Frisk while Cross kept her busy dodging. 

Frisk was losing ground and tiring fast. James and Undyne were never a problem for training, but the addition of Cross, unhindered by his former A.I., made this session an actual work out for her. Cross pressed attacks just as fast and hard as Frisk did. She'd have to think of something fast or she was going to lose her points for the round.

I sat back, sipping my coffee, while D leaned forward, watching pensively. 

"*I'm still not sure about this. Frisk seems better after helping on missions and he's definitely better after therapy sessions, but..."

"Training with my sister is helping him put his skills to use and keeping them sharp. He needs to know that his past and the skills he attained through it doesn't have to be a burden, but a boon," Asriel said. The goat prince watched the combatants closely.

Down on the floor, Frisk stopped suddenly and let Cross' fist slam into her sternum. She stumbled back a few steps but he yelped shaking out his hand.

"What do you have on under there?!"

Frisk smiled. "Alphys new prototype armor. It has the same properties as Mettaton's chassis."

James and Undyne moved to defense, suddenly wary. 

"*What is she doing?" D asked.

I leaned forward. "She's faking them out. If that was the prototype, his hand would be broken. Your Frisk isn't falling for it though."

Cross threw two quick punches at her face, hopping forward. Frisk dodged backwards. Cross swung again and Frisk blocked it, coming around with her own punch. Cross ducked under it. He came up and around, windmilling at her, and forcing her back toward the wall. He landed a punch to her stomach, underneath the bottom edge of the armor, and her breath went out in a woosh.

Frisk blocked Cross' next two punches before bringing her arms up and driving her elbows down on his outstretched arms. Cross brought up his right elbow toward her face and Frisk leaned backwards, grabbing the elbow with her left hand and forcing it back down. He entwined the fingers of his right hand with her left and locked her elbow while taking a swing at her with his left. She leaned out of the swing, only to have his elbow crack squarely against the armor. He gritted his teeth against the pain, dropping the hand he held.

Frisk rushed him, grabbing his jacket, and spinning him around. Cross lost his footing and hit the floor. Frisk jumped over him and went straight for Undyne. Undyne came up with a strong right hook, catching Frisk under the chin, and sending her to the floor. Frisk kipped up and blocked Undyne's next punch. She grabbed Undyne's shirt and tossed her into Cross as he came up behind. James used the moment to sweep Frisk's legs and pin her to the floor.

"You gonna yield, or do I need to follow up with the London story?" James asked.

Frisk suddenly turned red. "Oh My God. You wouldn't."

James smiled and shrugged.

"I am so making you regret this later," she grumbled. "I yield."

C's voice came over the loud speaker. "Point Agent Franklin. Hand to hand combat practice is done for today. Please clear the training floor."

James helped Frisk to her feet. She glared at him.

"Wow. Why the look of death?" Cross asked.

"She's never lost a point to James before," Undyne laughed. She put an arm around Frisk. "Come on. Alphys is taking us to the new noodle house for lunch."

Frisk sighed and put her arm around Undyne's shoulder, walking off the floor and toward the locker room.

Cross waved up at D before heading off with James. "So what's the London story?" he asked as they went through the doors.

I sat back and swiveled my chair around to Asriel. "He's still not looking at you."

Asriel sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head to the side, eyes closed. "I'm the one he couldn't save. It's what's making the choice of whether or not to reset so hard. If he takes it, his Asriel lives. But it also means who he is and everyone he knows changes for good." He opened his eyes and looked at D. "Have you and your brother discussed how you feel about it? It will be easier for him to make a decision if he knows your opinions."

D sat back. "*We've talked it over. Neither of us want the reset."

Asriel and I both looked at him, surprised. 

"You don't?" I asked.

"*We spoke with Blue. There is no way to save Prince Asriel in our current timeline. The reset is the only option to do so, but it does come with other consequences." He looked at his hands. "*We would rather move forward than go back."

"Have you spoken with Frisk about this?" Asriel asked.

D smiled softly. "*Not yet. We've been watching him. Each day, he becomes more and more this person that neither of us has ever known, but who we recognize as closer to his true self. Spending his days with your Frisk have made a huge difference in him. Red's sister offering not just her forgiveness, but her friendship was like a watershed moment. It won't be long before he's healed enough to talk about it with a clear head and peaceful heart."

Undyne, Frisk, James, and Cross came up to the observation room, all freshly showered, and ready for lunch.

My phone rang. I wasn't sure how it did that. I kept it on vibrate. Always. It rang again. I looked at it and accepted the call. "Fase?"

The voice of creepy doom filled my ears. "I'm very sorry to bother you, Father, but my brother is missing. He hasn't logged in for several days. Usually I can ping his implant or his phone, but I can't seem to locate them. I am very limited in how I interact with my world. Would you and Frisk please help me find my brother?"

"Sure. We'll grab our equipment and be there."

Cross looked at me. "Want an extra hand?"

"I'm sorry, but I must ask you to stay behind," Fase replied. "I trust you, but my brother... Well. You caused him a lot of trouble."

"I understand, Fase."

Frisk patted Undyne's shoulder. "I'll have to miss today." She looked at me. "I'll meet you over at the equipment room."

I nodded as she hurried off. "We'll be there shortly, Fase."

"Thank you, Father."

I hung up and checked my phone. Fase had changed my phone's settings so that it would ring when she called. I shoved my phone back in my pocket. "Later!" I headed off after Frisk. I found her packing her bag in the equipment room. "You haven't eaten yet."

"I grabbed an energy bar."

I leaned against the door with my arms crossed over my rib cage, smiling. Frisk rolled her eyes and ate the bar in front of me before shoving the empty wrapper in the back pocket of her pants. She tossed me my bag and I shouldered it before putting an arm around her waist. I solved for Fase's world, landing us in the Lab in front of her terminal. 

I'd seen the interface this world's Sans used before, but I never ceased to be impressed by it. Multiple computer screens flanked one massive display, each one set to tracking multiple alternate realities. The biggest anomalies at current were juggled on the main screen, maintaining contact with either that world's inhabitants or agents on the ground. I'd always known that my version of the Seraph Foundation was not the only one in existence, but it was still strange to see the other ones and their operatives at work. Not that it was unrecognizable. I spotted a standard variation Sans and a monster Frisk at work in a circus style timeline. 

A hologram of a teenage boy with spiky hair in a hoodie, ironic tee, and shorts stood on one of the keyboards that littered the counter top that served as a desk. It coughed politely to get our attention.

"Hello," Frisk said as she pulled up a chair. "And who might you be?"

A warm and too mature voice dripped from his mouth. "How do you know I'm not Fase?" 

"I'm a Frisk. I know another Frisk when I see one."

He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm the A.I. that manages the phones you all use. Fase named me Alexander, but you can call me Alex."

C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder and laughed at Alex, pointing. Alex flipped him the bird.

I smirked. "That's a pretty dorky joke she laid on you."

He shrugged. "At lease Alexander isn't a bad name."

"What's up with Fase?" Frisk asked.

"A new timeline just appeared and it's filled with so many problems Fase is worried it will collapse. That world's Sans came into being with one of Blue's special phones in his pocket, which is over the top weird by itself. Fase is talking him through a major list of issues. He looked overwhelmed at first, but he's up to the task. His Frisk is male. Approximately twenty-two years old. College grad on a hiking trip when he fell."

I nodded. "So what do we know about your Sans disappearing?"

He frowned. "Not much. He was here three days ago watching an anomaly develop, went home for the night, and didn't come back the next day."

"Has anyone checked his apartment? Or talked to Papyrus?" Frisk asked.

"Papyrus moved in with Mettaton five years ago. Sans lives alone as far as I know. He doesn't even keep a system core for Fase there," Alex answered.

"Does he have a separate office here?"

"No."

Frisk sighed. "Then the apartment is the first place to check. Can you give C a map?"

"Oh sure." He smiled at C. "You'll wanna make some room in there. Fase is gonna want to ride with you."

C snorted. "Fase can hang with Bones. I am not sharing my Frisk."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's hit the apartment. Fase can hop along on my memory core for C when she's done in the new timeline." 

We headed out of the the building and into the blindingly bright city. This world's St. Canard was a masterpiece of white buildings covered in masses of greenery. Building placement allowed for the maximum amount of sunlight to reach ground level. Pedestrians walked or biked where ever they went, the few vehicles on the road being completely electric. The streets were pristine in their cleanliness. The building that housed Fase's massive servers was a monument to the best in green engineering. The entire building powered itself, not from solar power like most of the city, but by the oxygen produced by the mass of plant life that covered the outside. 

We headed toward Sans' apartment building just outside of downtown near the Dreemurr Gardens where buildings had an old world, European look to them while still maintaining the clean, green atmosphere. Sans' apartment was in one of the smaller buildings hidden down an alley. The place had too many apartments crammed into too small a space. In fact, his apartment was only one step up from efficiency. I knew King Asriel paid him well, so I couldn't figure out why he'd choose to live in a place like this. The door took almost nothing to open. The living room slash kitchen had one chair and one folding table. The rest of the area was bookshelves filled to overflowing with books, with piles of them all over the floor. No TV. No computer. Not even a tablet among the piles.

Fase suddenly appeared on my shoulder. "I am so very sorry that I am late, Father."

"It's all right, Fase. How's the new timeline coming along?"

"It is stable for now but I have already contacted Core Frisk to be ready to help evac the timeline. Timelines are popping up left and right. So far, none of them come from Ink Sans. They all lack his special touch and are complete messes of glitching. At least in this one, the new version of my brother is quick on his feet." She looked around to the apartment. "Does my brother truly live here? It seems a very sad place."

Frisk opened the door to the bedroom. "Oh... hell."

I rushed over. "What?" I looked inside. "Oh no." 

The empty bedroom was covered in blue strings. 

"NO!" Fase barked. The hologram turned frantically before hiding her face in her hands. "No. No. No!"

Frisk stepped in and knelt down, something catching her eye in the shag carpet. She pulled on a glove before picking it up and holding it up for Fase. "Fase? What is this?"

Horror passed over the hologram's face. "That's my brother's implant."

"It doesn't have any damage or show the marks of being ripped out. He willingly removed it," Frisk said. 

"Does that mean he willingly went with Error?" I asked.

Frisk stood, looking around the room. "I think he did."

"Why would my brother do that?" Fase asked.

Frisk looked around. "Why would your brother live in a place like this? Completely disconnected from the technology of his world?" 

I bit back a curse. "We have to follow the lines."

Frisk sighed. "Agreed."

"Wait! Take me with you!"

"How, Fase? My memory core on Bones is not enough to handle you off timeline," C said.

Fase leaned around to look at C. "The Prime Alphys made me a special Delta Package. It's a memory core like yours, small and easily portable. With it, I can physically travel to other timelines."

"That's a bad idea, Fase. If Error should attack us, we'd be in serious trouble real fast," I said. "If something happens to you, the Seraph Foundation network would fall apart."

"I'll save before we leave. That way, if something happens, I can pull us all back here." 

I raised a brow bone at her. "That would work for you, but the rest of us would still be in trouble."

The hologram shook its head. "It's a save star the Prime Frisk made for me. They said I would need it if I ever went off timeline. I can pull anyone with me back to it."

I nodded and looked at Frisk. "I'll be back in a second."

"Stop!" Fase yelled. "Don't short cut! There is no unauthorized magic use here. I was able to get you permission to come on world and fight if necessary, but not teleporting in timeline." Fase appeared to sigh. "I apologize. King Asriel is very controlling."

I sighed. "Back in thirty then."

Frisk smiled. "No worries. It'll give me time to dig through this place. Maybe figure out why Sans would willingly leave with Error."

I headed back to Fase's building. "So Asriel's a real hard ass, huh?"

"This city is the cleanest, most nature friendly city in the greenest country in the entire world, but it's only that way because King Asriel rules it with an iron fist." The hologram sat on my shoulder. "He means well. When the barrier opened and he saw how awful and dirty this place was. It was filled with smog and pollution. The king was angry beyond belief. He worked so hard to manage resources and create a happy place for monsters underground that to see humans squandering their precious world was a horrible shock. I cannot say that the people here live freely, but the environmental improvements mean that people who do live here are safer and healthier."

I climbed the stairs back to Fase's terminal. Her hologram disappeared from my shoulder and to the keyboard interface. Multiple holograms appeared around her, receiving instruction and orders. A chimera type monster came into the room with a brief case. He opened it to reveal a small purple and gold pin with the Delta Rune on it. He affixed it to my jacket. Fase hopped back over to me, using the new core.

"Ooh! Roomy!" Fase looked up at me. "I am ready."

Back at the apartment, I found Frisk digging through the piles of books.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"Lots of notes in the margins that I can't make heads or tails of. Probably because I'm not a mathematician." She held one for me. "What does this mean?"

I frowned. "I have no idea. Fase?"

"It's code for a virus."

"To make one?" Frisk asked.

"It appears that my brother was studying a specific one. A not unusual thing for him. Virus neutralization is an important part of what he does since most anomalies stem from them."

"Any idea yet as to what's going on?" I asked.

Frisk took a breath, frowning slightly. "Maybe. I'm letting the puzzle pieces come together."

She stood and I put an arm around her, pulling us into the void. The tangle of blue in the room formed into one long strand and we followed it to what appeared to be a new timeline though calling anytime timeline new was a matter of perception. All timelines came into being with a history so while the timeline might be new from where I stood, life inside the timeline has gone on as if it had always been there. I stepped us into the timeline, landing us in the stained glass corridor. The mass of reds and golds were the big tip off. We were in a Fell timeline.

A teen Frisk who was a dead ringer for Red's little sister with long brown hair in a black and gray striped hoodie and black jeans came out of the hallway to the throne room. "Uh, sorry, guys! Queen Toriel isn't seeing anyone else today." She stopped short. "Hey! You're a human!"

She ran over to Frisk, grabbing her hands. "Oh wow! You look like an older version of me!" She stepped back, looking confused. "Are we related?"

Frisk smiled. "Yes and no. We're here to see Sans. Is he around?"

"Who's Sans?"

Frisk and I looked at each other. 

"Sans is... long gone."

We turned to see Toriel step out into the corridor but instead of a Fell Queen in black, we saw a Toriel in a long silver dress covered in flowers.

Toriel glided toward us. "Sans lost the battle with his own demons long before Frisk fell." She put a hand on the teen's shoulder. And took a deep breath, trying to will the terrible memory away. She nodded to me. "I recognize you. You're Dr. Gaster. And you are very obviously a Frisk. Am I correct in assuming that there are multiple worlds, other versions of us?"

I nodded. "Call me Bones, and, yes. We came here following the trail of a missing person."

Fase came to life on my shoulder. "There are several things seriously wrong here." Fase touched the air in front of her, using an interface only she could see. "This one needs to be queued immediately."

The teen Frisk came around and stood on tip toes to get a better look at Fase. "Totally rad! You aren't an exemplar. What are you?"

"Fase is an artificial intelligence. What's an exemplar?" Frisk asked.

"It's this." The girl stepped into a fighting stance and out of her rose a ghostly ninja, large and dangerous. It leaped in front of her, ready to fight. She came out of the stance and the ninja went up in smoke. "His name is Crow. I can summon him whenever I'm in a scrap."

Frisk smiled. "That's legitimately cool."

"What's anomalous about the timeline?" I asked.

Fase seemed to take a deep breath. "Let's start with Frisk. She's the wrong one. Her summon is associated with a different timeline all together. This timeline indicates a forty something male police officer was supposed to fall fifty years ago. Instead, that Frisk is missing and Sans is dead. And this timeline's Sans had the same skill set as my brother. It's a Fell world but it's supposed to be a digital fell world." Fase gestured to the air. "The code is just missing values everywhere!"

Toriel put a hand on the teen's shoulder. "What does this mean? Are you going to harm my child?"

"Oh No!" Frisk said. "That's never an answer to solving an anomaly."

"It just means that Fase needs to figure out how your timeline ended up this way and put it back to rights," I supplied. I looked at Fase, watching the hologram poking at her invisible interface. "And with everything going on right now, it's going to take a while." I sighed. "May we go to Sans' house in Snowdin and look at it?"

Toriel nodded. 

"Ooh! I want to go with them!" The teen stepped away from Toriel. "Can I?"

Toriel sighed. "We shall all go. It's been a while since I've visited."

I held out a hand to them and the teen reached out, all smiles. She took my hand and froze, looking lost. 

"Um. Aren't you supposed to make a joke? Or have something in your hand?" She looked confused. "Why do I think you're supposed to do that." 

I smiled. "Come along."

We hitched a ride with the Riverperson to Snowdin. The town was quiet and the skelebros' house was dark. Monsters bowed as Toriel walked by. She carefully unsealed the door to the house, and gently pushed it open. Frisk and I went in, flipping on the light. In the middle of the floor was a pile of dust so large, it could only have belonged to Papyrus. Sans' jacket and and blade he'd used to end himself lay among the dust. 

I stepped back outside and leaned against the house exterior, letting my arm cradle my skull. Frisk came back out and put her arms around me. 

"Need a minute?"

"Yeah."

She rubbed my back while I worked on pushing my fears back into their little box. No matter how many times we'd encountered a Papyrus' death, I still shook from it. The thought of being without my brother's sunshine would always shake me. From the corner of my eye socket I could see Fase's hologram trying it's best to pat the shoulder of my jacket. I stood and nodded once, letting Frisk know I was ready to go back in. Toriel and the teen Frisk were watching us. Toriel's expression had softened considerably.

"You are Sans. I'd thought from your appearance that you were Dr. Gaster. Why did you not correct me?"

I shrugged and put my hands in my pockets. "Because both answers are right. I was Dr. Gaster a long time ago and an accident made my brother and I." I gestured toward the door. "Shall we?"

She entered, eyes on the doorway to Sans' room. "What is your timeline like? Are monsters violent and broken there? Is my double the worthy friend that I could not be for my Sans?"

I took a breath and let it out slowly. I took both of her hands in mine. "Your Majesty. You only knew me briefly as Dr. Gaster before your son Chara died of a disease for which there was no cure. Instead of Asriel taking Chara through the barrier, you took him, and you were the one who paid the price for doing so."

There was a strange, hopeful glimmer to her eyes. "Does that mean that you know my son instead?"

"Yes."

She breathed a deep sigh and a smile touched her lips. "It is good to know that, somewhere, he lives."

Frisk climbed the stairs and opened the door to Sans' room. "Bones?"

"Yeah?"

"Blue lines."

I bit back a curse. "Another trail to follow." 

I headed up the stairs and looked in the room. Sans' books and laptop had been neatly laid out on the bed. His dust spread over them. Toriel's hand hovered over the dust but did not touch it. 

I turned to her and the teen Frisk. "This is where we'll be saying our goodbyes."

"Wait! Please!" Tori grabbed my hand. "Take Frisk with you!"

"What?"

"My realm is no place for a child and your A.I. said it herself. This is not where Frisk belongs. Some Sans, somewhere, needs her. If you are able to fix what has gone wrong here and I may one day see my Sans alive and well then it only makes sense that she goes with you."

I looked to my Frisk. 

She nodded. "We'll take her with us."

"Those were not the words I expected to come out of your mouth." 

C burst to life on her shoulder. "Me either! Seriously, Frisk! What are you thinking?"

"I agree with Frisk," Fase remarked. 

"Why?" I asked.

"She doesn't belong here and it's not safe for her to stay here either," Frisk answered. "I don't have all the information I need yet, but I'm pretty sure that she's important to what's going on."

"Again, I agree for the same reasons," Fase said. "Also, it will be easier for Ada to figure out where Frisk belongs the longer she is separated from the timeline that she's been living in."

"Ada?" C snickered. "Let me guess. She handles code, right?"

"Well of course!"

I sighed. "Just so it's noted that I object."

Frisk nodded once and turned to the teen. "Let's get you packed to leave."

Once the teen's things were in order, and Toriel had loaded her with extra monster food, we headed back to the house in Snowdin. Toriel hugged her one more time while Frisk pulled a small plastic bag from her pocket. Once goodbyes were said, I stepped us into the void, following the blue line. The kid clung to me hard and I kept an arm around her to make her feel better. The blue line ended in another timeline that appeared to be new. 

I landed us in what should have been Snowdin, but instead appeared to be an area filled with several large factories. As soon as her feet touched the ground, the teen fell to her knees. Frisk was with her in a flash, holding the bag while the girl tossed her cookies.

"*Woah! Hey, kid! Are you okay?"

I looked up. A standard variation Sans in a blue hoodie, shorts, and slippers ran over to us. 

"It's okay. Just her first time going through the void." I held out a hand. 

He clasped it, smile in place. "*Hey! A stud Sans! What brings you here? Seriously. This place sucks."

Fase burst to life on my shoulder. "Hello!"

"*Oh! I know your voice! You're Fase! Hey, thanks again for the help earlier. I still haven't seen heads or tails of my Frisk though."

"You are very welcome! We're here looking for my Sans. It seems he left with Error."

Sans dropped my hand. "*What? Why?"

"That's what we're trying work out. The trail we're following led here. I'm Bones."

"*The Bones? Woah." He looked down at the Frisks. "So would you be Frisk Church?"

Frisk finished helping the teen clean up and handed her a bottle of water to wash out her mouth. "Yes."

"*Is it true that the leader of Midnight Collapse lives with you? I mean, in your timeline?"

Frisk nodded. "Cross and his skelebros have been staying in our timeline while deciding whether or not to reset."

"*What's that been like?"

"Surprisingly pleasant," I said.

Fase was frowning, poking at her unseen interface. "You said you're Frisk isn't here yet. That isn't right. He should have been here a while ago." She started typing at an invisible keyboard. "Where is your Frisk?" she huffed. "Oh."

"*What?"

"He's not coming."

"Why not?" Frisk asked.

"He was, um..." Fase struggled to find the words. "The victim of short sightedness." She looked lost and confused. "I don't understand. Why do humans make such illogical... I mean, mathematically, it makes no sense to..." She looked at me. "I need to compile my data." She disappeared from my shoulder.

"What does she mean?" I teen asked.

"It means Frisk died before his Determination could save him," I answered. "Fase will need a minute. She doesn't handle other versions of herself being harmed very well."

"*But wouldn't that mean that my timeline should collapse? Why is it still here? Why am I still around?"

"Good question." I looked around. "What happened to Snowdin?"

"*Welp." He rocked back on his heels. "*Nightmare timeline. Specifically, everything here is abandoned for some reason or other. Most buildings are haunted or have creepy things in them and I'm pretty sure Slenderman is following me." He looked over his shoulder at a blank, white face peeking around a building."*Yeah. Slendy's over there." He turned back to me. "*Think of it like every horror trope out there put in one place, with a big helping of SCP Containment Breach."

Frisk shuddered. I rubbed her back to help her push away those memories. "Are you the only one here?" she asked.

He shrugged. "*In Snowdin? Yeah. I think so."

"Where's your brother?" I asked.

"*Brother? Nah. Gaster only made me."

Fase reappeared on my shoulder. "I have no idea why your timeline has not collapsed. I went over it 278 times and I have no idea why it's able to exist without a Frisk." She looked at Sans. "I have a very personal question to ask. May I touch you?"

"*Uh, sure. How?"

"Touch the pin on Bones' jacket."

Sans looked at me. I shrugged. He reached out and touched the pin. Fase disappeared. Both of his eye sockets went dark. For what felt like an eternity, he stood stock still, unmoving. 

Fase reappeared on my shoulder and Sans shook himself, the white points returning to his sockets.

"*Well?"

"Flowey's determination is currently keeping the timeline intact. You've fought him no less than seventy-two times. You don't remember doing that. You don't remember resets at all. You aren't as hopeless as other Sans-es because you don't remember the resets. Instead, you have another layer of memory laying on top of your own." She turned to me. "Father? I believe we should bring him with us."

"*To where, exactly? I mean, I really don't want to end up in Error's anti-void."

"How do you know about Error if you don't remember resets?" I asked.

"How do you know about Bones and I if you can't remember resets?" Frisk asked.

Fase pointed at me. "Exactly! He has a large portion of a different Sans-es memories."

Sans looked between Fase and I. "*How is that possible?"

Fase pointed to the pointed to the teen Frisk. "As far as I can tell, she fell down Mt. Ebott in one timeline and landed in another. You are running around with someone else's memories on top of your own. Those are serious anomalies that cannot be solved while you are associated with a timeline. It's easier to sort through code when I have less to look through." 

"Then we need to find the trail," Frisk said. She peered at Sans for a moment. "Never mind. I think I found it."

Sans looked at her. "*What?"

"Check out the hood of your hoodie."

"*Huh?" He pulled his hoodie off and dropped it when he saw the blue lines. "*Geez!"

Frisk picked up the hoodie and shook it to dislodge the lines. She handed it back to Sans who regarded it with suspicion for a moment before pulling it back on.

"Do you want to come with us?" I asked Sans.

"*Are you kidding?" He gestured back at Slenderman. "*I think I'm the only normal person in this entire timeline. Get me out of here!"

"Do you need to pack anything?" Frisk asked, helping the teen to her feet.

Sans shook his skull. 

Frisk walked over to a trashcan and dumped the plastic bag. One of Slendy's black tentacles reached for her. She sighed and looked him dead in his blank face. "Nothing is immune to blunt force trauma. Nothing."

The tentacle quickly withdrew.

She walked back over to me.

I smirked. "Black is immune to blunt force trauma."

Her eyes narrowed and I knew I was going to regret that one later. I put an arm around her with a wink. That earned me a smile. The teen Frisk and Sans grabbed ahold of my jacket and I stepped us into the void. There were blue lines everywhere, but the one we were following were clear of the rest. The trail landed us in a bedroom I recognized as standard to most Sans-es. The teen Frisk began to heave and I helped her keep her feet while she gulped air. Frisk petted her head for a moment while Sans looked around.

I opened the door and the first thing I saw was half a green couch. The TV was there and then it wasn't, blinking in and out of existence. I opened the door to Papyrus' room and it opened on nothing. I closed the door and went down the stairs, everyone else following close behind. I opened the front door on a world that was nothing more than static and lines.

"What is this?" the teen asked.

"Fase?" Frisk prompted.

"This isn't a new timeline and it isn't supposed to look like this at all. Where is everyone? How did this happen?" She worked quickly at her interface. "I have no idea what's happening here. The code is all wrong."

Sans looked around. "*There aren't anymore blue lines." 

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Fase. It doesn't look like we'll be finding your brother today."

The hologram turned to me, defeated. "Thank you for bringing me along, Father. I know you aren't exactly comfortable around me so I appreciate that you were willing."

I smiled. "No worries, Fase. Let's get you home and figure out where Frisk here belongs and why Sans has the wrong memories."

The teen grabbed a hold of my jacket. "Oh man! Here we go again!"

Sans put a hand on my shoulder as I pulled my Sunflower close and stepped into nothing.

The void was filled with blue lines. The timeline was completely surrounded by them. There was no way I could move us without touching one. I hugged both Frisks tightly as Sans' phalanges tightened on my shoulder. I looked around and found a place where only three lines crossed. 

"Take Fase's core from my jacket, Babe."

Frisk looked up at me and caught my intention immediately. "No. I am not leaving you here."

A thrum went up my spine and I pushed back at it with logic. "You're the investigator. You're the one putting the pieces together. We can't lose you."

"I'm not the only one who can figure out what's going on. Fase has the information. Send her with Sans and Frisk." 

The arm holding her was shaking and I couldn't get it to stop. "I'm not letting Error touch you. Ever."

Her left hand reached up to touch my skull and the glint of the gold ring on her finger caught my attention. "We made our vows. We do this together or not at all."

I sighed. "All right. We'll move Fase to Sans. She can get them back to her timeline."

"Uh, guys? What's that?"

Frisk and I looked at where the teen pointed. Orange and red phalanges reached through the lines and moved them apart, making an opening wide enough for all of us to get through. 

"*What if it's a trap?" Sans whispered.

Frisk shook her head. "We have to take the chance."

I moved us through the opening. When I looked back, the opening was gone, and no one was there.

I landed us in front of Fase's terminal. Fase's hologram moved from me to the keyboard. Several holograms appeared around her.

"So now what?" the teen asked. She looked a bit queasy, but was holding together far better than my Frisk had during her first travels through the void. 

Fase turned to her. "Now, I work on finding out where you belong. I was hoping Henri would have discovered your timeline by now, but it's eluding him. For now, it would be best for you to stay in a different timeline so that you can become 'unattached' to the one you were in for so long. Would you be willing to keep her, Father?"

"That's really up to my Asriel, though he's never turned anyone down before. Should we take Sans with us too?"

"Please."

I looked at Sans and he shrugged. "*Hey. Even the glitched out place was better than my last home."

The chimera type monster came back in and removed Fase's core from my jacket. "Fase wasn't too much for you, was it?"

I shook my skull. "Fase was fine." I held out my hands. "Come on. Let's get you two settled in."

"This is the last one, right?" the teen groaned.

"Last one for today and you're doing great."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

I deposited the four of us in the hallway outside Asriel's lab. 

Frisk poked her head in. "Az? We've got some more free loaders for you."

"*Hey! I'm good for more than just sleeping!"

Frisk chuckled as Asriel came out to look over the two.

"Are you Queen Toriel's son?" the teen asked.

"Yes. Though my mother died a very long time ago." He turned to me. "Do these two go together?"

I shook my skull. "Nope. Two different timelines. Fase is working on sorting them out."

Asriel nodded. "I'll put Sans in the suite next to yours. And you... hmm..." He looked her over. "You're underage and need a guardian to look after you." He looked at Frisk and I. "Are Vivi and Rav's parents still here?"

I chuckled. "I don't know if they're ever going to leave."

Asriel smiled. "See if they'd be willing to care for her."

"That won't be a hard sell," Frisk said. She put her hand on her younger self's shoulder and guided her down the hall. "Come on. I'll introduce you."

"Are they nice?"

"Yes." 

They disappeared up the stairs. Asriel tossed Sans a set of keys. "Would you mind showing him around, Bones?"

"Nope." I nodded toward the stairs. "Come on. I'll show all the best spots for naps."

"Sweet!"

Sans followed me up the stairs. I gave him a run down of who lived behind which doors before stopping at his suite. He opened the door and flipped on the light.

"*This is nice! I would totally change up my apartment for this place and not just because my current apartment is in a haunted doll factory built on the burnt remains of a different haunted doll factory."


	7. Ep. 7 - Roll for Initiative

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale, which is one of my AUs. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: Pockettale AU by UndergroundxSuperstar and Poketale AU by Inked Away both got mentions this time around. 
> 
> 1\. This episode was heavily inspired by Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms. If you are into D&D and think that a steampunk edge is just what it needs, check out Privateer Press' amazing setting.
> 
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Ep. 7 - Roll for Initiative

The work bench in my garage, a converted, red and white, soda bar from a defunct 50's diner, was standing up pretty well to the attack of the teen Frisk. She dug through every drawer while Red watched, an amused smile on his face. His sister sat next to him, hair her natural brown on top with fiery red and pink curls peeking out underneath. She was going over her chemistry textbook with D. Vivi and Ravie's father napped in a chair by the door. Frisk, Cross, D's brother, and mine sat at the booth I'd salvaged from the same diner playing Icehouse. I continued replacing the hoses on the Chevelle.

"*what exactly are you looking for, sweetheart?"

The teen looked up at Red. "I don't know. Just looking." She pulled out a red and white ball with a black ring around the middle. "Is this, like, an actual pokeball? What a dork!" She held up the small ball and it grew in her hand. 

"Careful, Frisk," I warned, knowing that being careful was the last thing she'd do. 

The ball popped open and in a burst of light, Max, my Houndoom, appeared.

"Oh shit! It's an actual Pokemon!"

"Language!" her guardian growled from his chair.

"Eep! Sorry, Sans!" She smiled nervously at Ravie's dad.

"I told you to be careful." I wiped my phalanges on a rag and patted Max's head when he trotted over. "Sorry about that. Would you like to stay out for a bit?" Max sat at my feet, tail wagging. I knelt down to give him a good petting.

Red snickered. "*consider yourself lucky. if that'd been one of sugar plum's pokemon, it might have attacked you."

She looked at Frisk. "Really?"

Frisk shrugged as she laid her next pyramid in the game. "My Lucario and Milotic wouldn't, but my Seviper would have bitten you straight out. He doesn't like anyone other than me."

Cross snorted. "You just can't get away, huh, Church?"

"Bite me."

"So do you turn into a Seviper in the timeline were everyone is a Pokemon?" he asked.

"SHE TURNS INTO A LOPUNNY," my brother supplied.

Cross put his head down to laugh.

Frisk blushed. "Papyrus!"

D's brother smiled, placing a pyramid while everyone was distracted. 

Cross elbowed his skelebro. "Stop cheating."

"HOW DID YOU EVEN CATCH THAT?"

Cross rolled his eyes. "It's me." 

Max laid down at my feet and I grabbed the next hose from my pile of replacements. 

"Bones? Would you grab me a soda from the fridge, please?" Frisk asked.

I eyed my Sunflower for a moment, tapping a boney finger against the engine.

Red's smile was too big for his skull. "*is the ring getting heavy, frodo?"

My brother laughed. I rolled my eye and grabbed her an orange soda from the fridge.

The teen looked around. "Wait? What? What ring?"

That only brought on a new round of laughter. 

I sighed. "He's referring to my wedding ring. And it's just fine, thank you." I handed Frisk the soda.

Cross snickered. "Tattoo detected." 

Frisk elbowed him in the side.

"You're married? Is that something all Frisks and Sans-es do?" the teen asked.

Red, D, and their Frisks looked each other. "No."

She turned to my Frisk. "So did you have the white wedding and big cake and everything?"

Frisk looked confused. "White wedding?"

"A white wedding. You wear a white dress in a big white church, and have white party favors and a big white cake."

Frisk looked thoughtful. "Wedding dresses in this country are red and gold. Depending on your family's traditions, vows are typically made at a shrine. There isn't a cake at the feast, but multiple types of cookies are served as a symbol of the many years of sweetness ahead."

"So why don't you two live together?"

I raised a brow bone as Max put his head up under my phalanges for more attention. "We do."

"No you don't. Frisk lives in her apartment and you live in the suite with your brother."

"You're asking why we don't share a bed," Frisk interjected. "Well, we do. Just not all the time. Men in my country do not share a bed with their wives unless specifically asked to do so. Some of the more traditional houses are long, low ranches with the husband and sons living on one side and the wife and daughters living on the other."

"*I wondered why there were two master bedrooms in the cabin," D remarked.

Frisk smiled. She placed a pyramid and looked at my brother. "You are so winning this round."

He smiled. "OF COURSE."

"Troll."

Chara came into the garage, hair wet from a shower, and sat in front of his Frisk, leaning back against her legs. She laid her hand on his shoulder as Flowey climbed up a sprawled on the top of her head, exhausted.

"*you two look like you're surviving undyne's training."

Chara looked up at Red and shrugged. "Bone's Undyne isn't as insane as ours. I'm tired, but not popping monster candy for broken bones."

The teen looked at him. "You're in training everyday, right? Why?"

Chara eyed her. "To be my Frisk's bodyguard."

"Why does she need a bodyguard?"

Red sat up. "*because eventually someone is gonna figure out who frisk is and that she is responsible for opening the barrier in our world. when that happens, she will be walking around with a target on her back." The Kiddo nodded.

The teen looked around the garage. "Will that happen to me?"

I shrugged. "It depends on your timeline and the choices you make. My Frisk and Cross both chose not to reveal themselves and both have the resources and skills to keep that under wraps. Frisk," I pointed to the Kiddo. "Chose to be an ambassador for monsters in a world fraught with serious danger. She needs the extra set of eyes to watch her back."

My phone vibrated in my pocket just as Frisk's rang. I didn't have to check it to know who the text was from. 

Frisk put her phone to her ear. "Hey, Blue. Yeah. They're here. Just a second." 

She set her phone on the table, switching it to speaker so we could all hear Blue's voice. "*welp. i've got good news, bad news, and meh news on top of a mission. good news, fase has identified the sans whose memories are overlaying your guest's. bad news, he's dead and his timeline is gone."

"Let me guess," Cross started, "He had a similar skill set to Techno Sans."

"*you got it, bud."

Frisk and Cross looked across the table at each other. 

"*for meh news, fase still doesn't have any idea what timeline our exemplar toting frisk belongs in. everyone in the database has an associated frisk. we still don't have a clue where techno sans is, but it isn't the anti-void."

Red snorted. "*how do you know that? did you go for a walk in there?"

"*yes."

"*you crazy fucker! what where you thinking?!"

"*i was thinking that he'd be there and we'd get some straight answers. but no one is in there. i couldn't even find traces of error. it's like he's abandoned it."

"What's the mission?" I asked.

"*an interesting one. i have a medieval era fantasy timeline with high tech anomalies appearing. they look to be caused by someone rather than a system anomaly. you'll need to take more than yourself and frisk for this one, bones. i want you to take frisk and d with you."

There was a way Blue could say Frisk and you knew which one he meant. Even without the qualifier of D, we all knew he meant Cross. I looked between the two. Cross nodded. D frowned, but nodded. 

"*do not suit up as usual for this place. when you get there, anything that you took with you that doesn't conform to the timeline will be lost. leave everything behind, including an sentimental items, and put on a set of old uniforms so you won't miss them. fase will handle you having the appropriate equipment when you land. if there's anything you really want with you on timeline, ask fase for a facsimile. bones and d, be prepared to change into humans. the only monsters in this timeline are animals. everyone you know will be human or humanoid."

"What about C?" Frisk asked.

"*leave his chip connected. fase has something special for him."

C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder. "Well it was nice knowing you!"

Frisk rolled her eyes.

"Who is our contact?" D asked.

"*you don't have one. avoid the timeline's versions of yourselves. especially the sans. he is dangerous in ways that i can't describe."

"You don't want us to recruit him?" Frisk asked.

I could feel the sigh more than hear it. "*he is the kind of powerful that would be distinctly useful to the foundation and i believe he could provide insight into frisk and chara's body double situation. even so, avoid contact."

"Got it."

"*when you're ready, contact fase for the equations."

"Will do." Frisk disconnected the call. She stood. "Meet you boys outside my office in ten." She disappeared outside the door.

I picked up the pokeball. "Sorry, Max. It's time to return." He disappeared into the ball and I put it away with the other two. "Would you lock up when everyone is done, Paps?"

My brother smiled. "CERTAINLY!"

I short cut up to my room for a moment to change into an old shirt and jeans, carefully hanging my jacket in the closet. I touched the pocket with the photo in it for a moment before short cutting to Frisk's apartment.

I poked my head in her bedroom. "You ready, Sunflower?"

"Just about." She was staring at her ring, laying in the palm of her hand. 

I eased mine off and put it next to hers. She smiled and put them in the jeweler's box we'd originally brought them home in. 

I hugged her close. "You all right?"

Her head rested on my sternum. "Yeah."

"Hey, Lovebirds. You've got a minute to be down stairs," C teased.

Without letting go, I short cut us down to Frisk's office. D and Cross where waiting outside. 

Cross looked D over. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"*Personally, no. But I want to see how you do on a mission."

I called Fase and her voice of creepy doom filled my ear hole. "Are you ready, Father?"

"Yes."

The equations filled my head with the all too familiar buzz. The phone disconnected and I held out an arm to Cross and D. Both gripped my radius and ulna while I put an arm around Frisk. The void around the timeline was distinctly empty of blue lines. I landed us on a path through a forest under late afternoon light.

We all took a moment to check out our clothing and damn if we didn't look like we'd all just walked out of a Dungeons and Dragons players handbook. Frisk and Cross were looking over their matching black and dark blue attire. D stared at his clawed hands. He'd been human before, but this was entirely different. He wasn't a human with dragon wings. Instead he was considerably taller with scales starting around his face and covering most of his skin, or as much as you could see under his clothing. 

Cross looked at him. "Woah. Dragonborn! Sweet."

Frisk looked at me and quickly looked away, blushing. I looked down. I was clothed in brown with leather armor, but didn't see anything out of place... Oh. I smirked and leaned over her shoulder.

"What's wrong, Babe?" I put my mouth to her ear and whispered, "See something you like?"

Cross snickered. "You two want us to give you some space?"

She glared at him. "We're still missing equipment."

"That's because I'm taking care of it on timeline," Fase said. A female looking child in a blue dress with a purple sash stood behind us. She rolled her shoulders in a pained sort of way. "I hate having a physical body. I find it extremely uncomfortable," Fase huffed. "I'm not sure how any of you can stand it."

Cross shrugged. "It has its perks."

Frisk touched the back of her neck. "My implants are still in place, but I don't hear C."

"That's because I've been trying to figure out how to get pictures of you guys."

I looked up and found C, who'd transformed into a small red fairy, sitting on a tree branch above us. 

He jumped down and landed on Frisk's shoulder. "So what have you got for us?"

Four leather backpacks appeared next to Fase. "These bags are dimensional, so they can hold a lot of materials, but everything is well organized. The inhabitants of the timeline use sword and sorcery. The bags have appropriate weapons and equipment for each of you including, more than enough money to be sure you can eat and sleep in decent places, and some monster food so you can heal as you need too. Father," she indicated me, "You will find magic works the same, but there is a sword in here as well. Father," she indicated D, "You'll find your magic works the same but can be amplified with music. So your bag has several instruments to choose from. Frisk and Frisk, you both have an assortment of weapons at your disposal as well as lock picking equipment and trap disabling kits."

Fase turned and pointed down the road. "Whoever is causing the anomalous tech is in the city down the road. Grab that person and take him or her back to the Foundation. If you need to call me, C will have the ability to get a hold of me. Good Luck!" She disappeared.

After identifying and shouldering our packs, we hoofed it down the road to a massive city. Contrary to much fantasy fiction, there wasn't a gate around the city itself, only around the towering castle in the middle. Travelers freely walked into and out of the outskirts at leisure. On the other hand, the large amount of fantasy races such as elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes filled the streets. Dragonborn must not have been all that unusual since no one gave D a second look. A sign off the main road said, 'Welcome to New Home.'

"Make Way! Make Way!"

We moved with the crowd on the street to the sides as a massive, steam driven robot stomped through carrying a massive load of wood. While children clambered around to see the thing, the adults paid it no mind, like it's appearance was normal for them.

"And here I was wondering where we would start," Cross said. We followed the robot through the streets to where it and its handler carefully delivered the load of wood. "Excuse me, I have a question about your helper."

The handler turned. "He's not for sale."

Cross shook his head. "Where did you buy him?"

"New around here, huh? These things," he tapped on the robot's leg, "are massively expensive. You have to have a lot of cash to afford one and most are owned by the royal family. This one is owned by the Boneweaver family. If you really think you might be interested in one, the office for the business is up in the Merchant's District. Look for Mineforge Steel on Market Street."

"Thank you."

He waved Cross off. 

"Great. How do we get to Market Street?" D asked.

Frisk pulled a map out of her bag. "With this and asking for some directions." As we walked to the Merchant district, Frisk and Cross chatted several people up along the way. The hour it took us to get there was more than enough time for the two to completely mimic the manners and grammar of the upper class as well as gather appropriate names and information. They ducked into an alley to change clothes, putting on the appearance of a pair of siblings from a well to do family.

"Names?" Frisk asked.

"Edward and Asenath Derby," Cross answered.

"Dork."

"Backstory?" Cross asked.

"We're the heirs of a merchant family from the Treodia Empire and are looking to partner with the existing business to make a sister location at the Capital."

He and Frisk smiled at each other, clearly having fun coming up with a cover on the fly. 

D leaned in toward me. "Are they always like this?"

I looked up at him. "Frisk is always like this so I would assume Cross is too."

"He looks happy."

I shrugged. "He's using his talents in the service of something he really believes in."

Cross looked over. "Are you two done talking about me?"

I winked at him with my left eye. "Sure."

"Good. Bones, you're playing the roll of bodyguard. Sans, family retainer. C's our pet."

D and I nodded. C snorted.

Frisk pointed. "Shop is up the street. Follow our lead and let us do the talking."

Cross offered his 'sister' his arm and up the street we went. Mineforge Steel was in a row of stone buildings facing the street. The dwarf sitting at the desk regarded Frisk and Cross with some suspicion during their introductions. And was immediately impressed when Cross offhandedly lifted an incredibly heavy tool from the desk with one hand. Talks began in earnest then and ended with an appointment to see the factory the next day.

"That was amazing!" D exclaimed once we were far from the office.

Frisk and Cross both beamed. 

"Let's find some beds for the night and some eats," I said. "Fase marked several trustworthy places on the map and this one is close to the office." I led us to the inn and found a beautiful stone lodge. The outer walls had been covered in plaster and painted with idyllic country scenes filled with flowers and children. Rooms and dinner were easily acquired.

"Any thoughts yet on the anomalies and Error?" Cross asked, over his dinner.

"I think Error has been leading us around, showing us anomalies," Frisk answered. "The problem is, I don't get why. So far, I've noticed that we have three distinct categories of anomalies. On one hand, we have anomalies that are out of place but can be fixed either by save access or Fase's touch. In several cases, we've had reports that Inky can fix them as well. On the other, we have timelines being altered full scale. The Frisk and Sans we found..." She shook her head. "That's something else."

Frisk dropped the piece of bread in her hand. "Maybe that's what Error was trying to show us. There's something else out there and it's going after anyone that can stop it, but what? Why not just lead us too it? And why would Techno Sans leave with Error?"

D looked at me. "Could Techno Sans cause anomalies using Fase?"

I was about to say no and stopped to think about it. "He probably could. But I'm not sure how he would do it under Fase's nose."

Frisk picked her bread back up. "Fase loves and trusts her brother. So he could get away with it, but he's not that kind of person."

"Would he cover for someone else?" Cross asked.

I used my bread to sop up the last bit of soup from my bowl. "Maybe."

"So where does our teen Frisk come from?" Frisk mused.

Cross reached for another piece of bread. "What if she doesn't come from anywhere?"

"Go on," I prompted.

"Let's back up a little so I can give you my train of thought. A techno Sans bites it and his timeline is destroyed. Someone takes that Sans' memories and puts them on our 'straight man in a nightmare' Sans. I think that was a deliberate attempt to save the techno Sans' skill set. But it didn't work. The memories associated with the skills didn't transfer. So let's move on to Frisk. Blue said that every timeline associated with her Exemplar has it's Frisk in place. So what if she doesn't belong to any of them? What if she's a copy of a Frisk and someone tried to place her in a timeline where she would be cared for? One missing its Frisk and Sans, so no one would know anything was out of place."

"Those are big leaps," D grumbled.

"But they make sense," C said. "We know someone is causing the anomalies. What if Error is trying to fix the anomalies only to cause more? Iris said that every time Error tried to 'fix' an anomaly he only made more."

Frisk looked at C. "Which could be some of what we're seeing."

Cross yawned and watched the sky darken through the window. "I'm hitting the sack. We're close and maybe some sleep will make it all come together."

"Agreed." D stood and followed his Frisk up the stairs. 

"Finished?" I asked. 

Frisk wiped her mouth and nodded. We headed up to our room. It was small, but cozy, and the bed was comfortable.

Realizing I hadn't done so yet, I took a quick look at myself in the mirror as I undressed. I had not expected the face that looked back at me. I'd expected to look like White: pale, white haired, and boyish. Instead, my face was masculine, skin a warm brown, hair dark, eyes blue. The scars on my skull had transferred to the skin on my face, but appeared faded, like they had happened long ago. Frisk came up behind me and I turned to put my arms around her.

"So you like this mug, huh?"

Frisk looked away but couldn't hide her blush. "I love you. It doesn't matter to me what you look like."

I took her chin in my hand and turned her face up toward mine. "I am well aware of that, but you like this. Your face is flushed. Your breathing is heavy." I ran a hand down her arm. "And you're trembling." I kissed her softly.

She responded immediately, pressing her body to mine, pulling at me. 

I broke the kiss. "What's the hurry, Sunflower?"

"Don't tease."

I picked Frisk up and tossed her onto the bed, trapping her underneath me. "I have no intention of doing that."

I woke up the next morning with Frisk curled against me, head on my shoulder. I rolled to my side and ran a finger along the edge of her cheek down to her chin. She sighed softly. I pulled the blanket up over her head and rolled away to get dressed. 

C landed on my shoulder. "I leave you two alone for a little bit and you turn into rabbits!"

I gave him my best glare. "Ha ha. Where were you?"

"Well, I'm not the only fairy in the world and she was really, really cute."

"You are a child."

"I am two hundred and fifty something years old!" C huffed. "I don't care what my programmed hologram looks like, I am an adult!" He sighed. "I'd like to enjoy my short lived out of body experience."

I cocked my head to the side. "You aren't enjoying it?"

C sat on my shoulder and put his head in his arms. "I really don't like this. I want to be back in Frisk's head." He took a deep breath. "Cross and D are already up, so you'll want to wake Frisk. If you can get her up. Seriously though, she only sleeps like that after you've rolled her."

I looked down at her. "I know." I leaned over her and kissed her cheek. "Wake up, Sunflower. We're on Foundation time."

Her blue eyes opened a little and she smiled at me. "Is C back?"

"Right here!"

Frisk looked at him and sat up, holding the blanket to her chest. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before hopping out of bed to get dressed. We met D and Cross for a quick breakfast before heading back over to MineForge Steel. A dwarf was waiting to take us by carriage to a large, wood beam factory just on the outskirts of town. The first part of the tour showed off the different models of robot, which they called steam automatons, lined up outside the building. They had large, lumbering ones for military purposes, and smaller ones for construction and heavy lifting. 

D leaned in toward me while Frisk and Cross talked with the dwarf. "Is it just me or do these things seem to not be out of place at all?"

"You're right," I answered. "I think these are supposed to be here."

The dwarf took us inside the factory where dwarves, gnomes, and humans worked on two large military automatons. Both machines were already affixed with the Delta Rune in purple and gold on their breast plates.

Our tour guide motioned us to follow him along the wall and out of the way. "Come this way. This operation is headed by the famous Dr. Alphys. She's been working a brand new prototype. It's small, sleek, and much more humanoid in design."

We came to a door and the dwarf knocked. 

A crash and the pop of a small explosion was followed by a very recognizable laugh.

"Shut up, you!"

"*oh come now, alphys. that was legitimately funny." 

Well, whether we liked it or not, we were running into this world's Sans. At least he sounded amused. 

"Is everything all right, Dr. Alphys?" the dwarf asked. "I'm here with the investors from Treodia."

"Yes, yes. Please show them in," Alphys answered through the door.

The dwarf ushered us in. Alphys, a tall, golden scaled, dragonborn woman, stood next to a table, brushing dust from her leather apron. Sans, a well dressed human male with short red blonde hair and green eyes sat in a stool in the corner. 

"Edward and Asenath Derby of Treodia," the dwarf announced. Sans raised an eyebrow, smile still in place.

"Ah yes. Thank you, Bomom." Alphys gestured to the workshop. "Welcome to the factory. I am told you are interested in chartering a branch of the MineForge Steel in Treodia, correct?"

Frisk nodded. "The construction automatons have our primary interest, though I'm sure the emperor would be very interested in contracting for your military grade models."

Alphys nodded. "The current models are impressive, but the new one, I think, will truly interest you." 

She led us to a table in the back of the shop, the contents of which were covered with a sheet.

Cross leaned in toward his 'sister' and whispered, "Canvas Blasted."

Frisk nodded. "I know."

C looked at both of them for a moment before fluttering back to me and whispering in my ear. "Sans is on to us."

I nodded as he flew up to D's shoulder. I wondered what tipped him off. Even so, neither Frisk or Cross were breaking character.

Alphys pulled back the sheet with dramatic flair. On the table was a sleek robot that reminded me heavily of Mettaton's body. And it was far too advanced to be natural to the machine evolution we saw outside.

"It looks very human," Frisk said, hand to her mouth, looking suddenly unsure. She looked to her brother. "It is uncanny."

"What would be the purpose of such a machine?" Cross asked. "Household? Protection?"

"Both and more! From military applications to entertainment, this model would be able to handle any task a person would not wish to do. And it does not require the same energy consumption as the original models. To run those, it takes a large amount of wood or coal. But this, this runs on a tank of compressed gasses." Alphys hand caressed the chassis lovingly. 

"*how about you give them a demonstration, alphys?"

Cross looked back at him with a haughty expression. "I apologize. I do not believe we were introduced."

Sans hopped down from the stool and sauntered over. "*sans. sans boneweaver."

"Sans is my business partner. Even if all he does is supply the funds," Alphys explained.

"*start it up. let's show them what it can do."

Alphys sighed and turned on the machine. It's working eye opened, glowing yellow, and and it sat up, throwing its legs over the side of the table to stand. It looked to Alphys, waiting for direction.

"Demonstrate range of motion, please."

"*no. demonstrate protection against enemies."

Alphys gasped as the robot's eye glowed red. It turned on us. 

"Switch on the back?" Cross asked.

"Was there ever a time when there wasn't?" Frisk responded.

Cross ducked the robot's swing at him, grabbing both arms to hold them down. Frisk circled it to flip the switch on it's back to off. The robot hit the floor in a jumble. 

"Sans! What are you doing?!" Alphys cried.

"*protecting our assets." The floor underneath him glowed blue with magic. 

I cut through it, shutting down his spell. And by the look on his face, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Sans!" Alphys yelled.

A door to the right opened. 

"*what's all the noise? do you need help?" Techno Sans, still skeletal, stopped dead when he caught sight of us. "*oh fuck."

C dashed right for him, grabbing his collar, and shoving a hand into his implant port before he could short cut away. He crashed to the floor.

"*christ, c! that hurts! stop!"

"Not until you promise not to short cut away!"

"*i promise! i promise!"

C pulled his hand out of the port. 

He looked up at us, wincing in pain. "*how did you find me?"

I folded my arms across my chest. "We weren't actually looking for you. We were looking for the person causing the anomalies in this timeline. But I'll take finding you."

"*and i'll thank you to leave my friend there alone." Sans sent a wave of dark energy at us. 

Frisk and Cross stepped behind D and I as we put up a barrier. Techno Sans grabbed C and shoved him inside his rib cage. 

"Sans! Stop this instant!" Alphys grabbed him with one hand and lifted him. "I've had enough explosions for one day and they do not appear to be inclined to harm Thomas."

Frisk looked back at him. "Thomas?"

Techno Sans shrugged and stood, careful to keep C protected in his rib cage. "*these are my friends and they have every right to be angry with me."

"*You're damn straight we do," D fumed. "*Your sister is a wreck, and trying to do your job on top of hers. Frisk and Bones went on a wild goose chase a la Error trying to find you. Blue went into the anti-void looking for you." He pointed to the robot on the floor. "*What part of 'anomalies are bad' are you just not getting?"

"*blue went..."

Alphys put Sans down. "He has been helping me perfect my automatons. How is this a bad thing?"

"The advancement is too fast," I answered. "It can have terrible consequences."

Sans smoothed out his clothing before turning to 'Thomas.' *what do they mean?"

"*technological development that out paces the ability for the people to handle it leads to catastrophic disaster. i didn't think that helping alphys would be too much of a push."

C crawled out of his rib cage to sit on his clavicle. "I saw your sister's read out. This place glowed like a nuclear tomato."

He flinched.

Frisk took his phalanges in her hands. "What's going on? We've all been worried sick about you."

He sighed, looking at his slippers. "*there's a lot to explain." He looked up at her. "*and you aren't going to like any of it." he sat down cross legged on the floor. "*after everything with midnight collapse, i started feeling useless and trapped. while cross' little minions were running around destroying everything, i felt like i wasn't just sitting at a terminal. i was doing something. and then bam. all gone."

He huddled in his hoodie. "*some where along the line i started poking the anomalies that popped up and realized i could push them around, split them off, develop them in new ways. and i started causing anomalies, just to see what would happen."

"And from there it spiraled out of control, huh?" I asked.

"*i weakened the firewall that imprisoned the C.H.A.R.A. virus enough for it to get out."

D and I stood there with our mouths hanging open.

Cross looked at both of us. "Does that mean what I think it does?"

Frisk turned to look at him. "The C.H.A.R.A. virus is Fase's Chara. Her analog. And it's sentient." She looked at Techno Sans. "Error was trying to show us what C.H.A.R.A. has been doing. Is that all of his involvement?"

"*he figured out that i was the one making the original anomalies after C.H.A.R.A. attacked him. he told me that C.H.A.R.A. was erasing anyone who could stop it from existence, and that it was only a matter of time before it came after me." He looked at Cross and D. "*i didn't believe C.H.A.R.A. was that powerful so error dragged me into the void to watch a timeline be completely eaten away. my only choice was to leave."

"Did Error try to fix any of the anomalies?" Cross asked.

He nodded. "*yeah. he tried to give one sans another's memories but it didn't work. before he dropped me here, he found a copy of a frisk floating in the void and put her in a timeline missing it's frisk."

"Copy?" Cross looked at Frisk. "Hot damn, I was right."

"*you've met her?"

"We have her at the Foundation," I said.

Frisk reached out to him. "You have to come back with us."

He shook his skull. "*no. i have to stay here."

"Why?"

"*this world's gaster is called 'the travesty maker.' and he's been attempting to steel alphys work."

Sans sat in a chair and propped his feet up on a table. "*our intelligence tells us that he's in the process of building a large device meant to wreak havoc on the city and destroy the dreemurr family."

Cross pointed to the robot as Alphys picked it up and put it back on the table. "You were building that to stop Gaster."

Sans nodded.

"What blew our cover?"

"*the tip off was the names. they're appropriate for the treodia empire, but i am aware that there are other dimensions. other timelines. and I happen to be a big lovecraft fan."

Frisk reached down and pulled 'Thomas' off the floor. "We'll help you with your problem here, but you have to come back with us. You can't hide here."

He looked away. "*i'm not hiding..."

"Yes, you are. It's why your apartment was devoid of anything technological. You knew you had a problem and you tried to deal with it on your own by giving up what makes you, you." She put an arm around his shoulders. "How are you still a skeleton in this timeline?"

"*if error touches you, you glitch for a bit. it'll wear off after a while."

Cross looked to Sans. "Any idea where Gaster keeps his diabolical toy?"

Sans feet dropped to the floor. "*you make it sound like entering his hide out will be a piece of cake."

"Preemptive strike?" Frisk asked.

Cross nodded. 

"You are way too direct sometimes."

He snorted. "And you take way too long to get to your objective."

They looked at each other, the same smile slowly curling their lips. 

I sighed and turned to D. "And here's the problem with the two of them working together. It turns into a competition. Every time."

They both glared at me.

"*wow. that's really creepy."

Frisk looked at Techno Sans. "What do you mean?"

"*how much you two look alike."

Sans stood. "*if you really think you can handle infiltrating gaster's hide out, follow me." 

Alphys remained behind as we followed Sans through an underground passage back into the city, coming out in the office of an opulent house. He pulled out a map of the city and laid it across the desk. 

"*my brother and i were able to locate two different hide outs and a warehouse off the river to the west. one hide out is a brothel by the docks and the other is an undertaker's morgue. the windows on the warehouse are painted black so getting a look inside is difficult. the men who work for gaster are with incredibly loyal or incredibly afraid, because getting any of them to talk, even under torture, is impossible. gaster himself, while tall and very thin, is very strong. he tossed alphys across the factory once while several dwarves were attacking him."

Frisk and Cross looked at each other.

"Where is Gaster most likely to be?" I asked.

"*he's never seen during the day. in the early evening, he is at the brothel and then goes to the morgue. after that, the rest of the night is spent at the warehouse."

"Is he human?" Frisk asked.

Sans eyed her. "*why?"

"You don't see him all day and when he does appear his first stop is a brothel. Sure, he could be checking in on business, but I think he's stopping in for a bite to eat."

"You think he's a vampire?" I asked.

"Super strong and not seen during the day? It's worth it to make the assumption."

"So do we stop him at the brothel or wait until he gets to the warehouse?" Cross asked.

Frisk crossed her arms over her chest. "We stake out the brothel. If he's an undead of any type and feeding off the prostitutes, we'll be able to figure out which kind and formulate a plan before heading to the warehouse."

"How long do we have until Gaster normally shows up at the brothel?" Cross asked.

"*about six hours."

"Lunch and a nap," Frisk and Cross both said.

Sans looked at Techno Sans. "*when you said the people of the seraph foundation where good at their jobs, i wasn't expecting them to want to nap as much as we do."

Cross pointed at him. "You always want to be well rested before a mission. Always."

He shrugged. "*i'll have the sheets turned down in the guest rooms then."

Lunch and a nap later, Frisk and I were hidden on the roof of a boarding house next to the brothel, watching through the windows.

C sat on Frisk's shoulder, leaning against her neck.

"You okay, C?"

"No."

"No? I thought you'd be happy to have a body of your own for a while."

C sighed, burying his face against her neck. "I thought I'd be happy about it, but I hate it."

"Don't you want a body of your own, separate from me?"

He looked up at her. "No. No, I don't." His shoulders sank. "What about you? Are you enjoying having your head to yourself?"

Frisk's shoulders dropped suddenly, eyes troubled. "No. It's so quiet. I can't stand it. It's just me and my thoughts and... You know how I am."

C hugged her neck. "It won't be too much longer."

I looked over to the building and caught sight of an incredibly tall and slender man. "There he is," I said.

"Wow, is he pale!" C exclaimed. "He's almost as white as bone."

"He's not a vampire," Frisk said. "Vampires in these fantasy worlds typically have a bluish cast to their skin. He's a lich."

I groaned. "Oh, please tell me you're kidding."

She shook her head. 

"That means we have to find a phylactery. Where would he hide it?" 

"We don't know enough about him to figure that out. Let's go for taking him and his operation out, and leave the phylactery to this world's Sans."

Cross came up next to Frisk. "That's a lich, Church."

"I know."

"So do we roll for initiative or throw quartz, parchment, shears?"

"That's an evil game," I said.

Frisk got her feet underneath her in a crouch. "He still has one more stop before the warehouse. Let's clear it before he gets there and prepare an ambush."

We headed over the other side of the roof and used a ladder to slide to the street where Sans and D waited for us.

"*Well?" D asked.

"Lich," Frisk answered.

Sans nodded, but did not look surprised by the information.

"The plan is to clear the warehouse and prepare an ambush," Cross supplied.

Sans and D nodded. We headed for the warehouse. Cross, D, and Sans taking the back while Frisk, C, and I entered through a side window. We met in the middle of an area empty of anything but wood and metal debris.

"There's no one here," Cross said.

"*no. we aren't alone." Sans drew his sword.

Zombies clawed their way out of the ground in a circle around us. Frisk rushed the one in front of her, slicing it in half. Cross ducked the one that grabbed at him, cutting it down easily. D threw one zombie into another while Sans and I blasted the ones in front of us. 

The main doors of the warehouse opened and Gaster strode in. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before you took matters into your own hands and came to stop me, Sans. It's a shame really. You were my best apprentice."

Sans said nothing. He merely reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of bone, throwing it into the air. The ground underneath him glowed a strange violet. The zombies and various debris around the warehouse flew to the bone, creating a massive necromantic golem. A club formed in it's hand and it swung, hitting Gaster full in the chest to fling him backwards and into the river.

The golem stomped out of the warehouse, waiting. It didn't take long. Gaster rose out of the water on a mass of black tentacles. The tentacles grabbed the golem and jerked it off balance, crashing it face first into the river. Gaster used it's body as a dry path to walk ashore.

"I was going to save my little creation as a surprise for the day I created my kingdom on the ashes of New Home. But if you are so eager to send this world to hell, I can move up my schedule." Gaster lifted a pale hand.

The ground shook splitting open as a dragon that melded metal and necromancy rose from within the confines of the warehouse, shattering the building. It roared, wings flapping in preparation to fly. 

Cross and Frisk both dashed for it.

"Go for the wings! Keep it on the ground!" Cross yelled over the roar.

Sans ordered his creation to it's feet, throwing Gaster into the dragon's chest. He hit the ground with a thud.

Frisk and Cross climbed the dragon from either side, wrapping ropes around the wings where they connected to the body. They pulled with all their might only to be knocked down by the tail whipping at them.

"We need help!" Frisk yelled.

D and I ran for them only to be blocked by Gaster as he rose from the ground to throw fire balls at us. I dodged to the left of one fireball and hit the ground to avoid the next. D rounded the lich and tackled him to the ground. 

I looked up to Frisk and Cross. Just as they were getting their feet underneath them again, two tall figures landed behind them. Frisk looked back and smiled at whoever it was, tossing him the back end of the rope. All four of them heaved on one rope and stripped the dragon of one wing. The creature thrashed, throwing them all to the ground.

Gaster pushed D off of him and reached back to touch his dragon. A dark power infused the creature, making it stronger. The dragon started to grow. 

Frisk held her side, shoving monster candy in her mouth as Cross helped her to her feet. The two with them were helping each other up, preparing to assault the dragon again. I summoned multiple bones and through the creature, tearing off a back leg, and holding it immobile. Gaster grabbed me by the neck and tossed me into D, sending us both underneath the dragon. 

I looked around. The dragon was still thrashing, just not very well with all the bones sticking through it. Like Sans' construct, there had to be a central piece. Remove it and the whole thing falls apart. Oh, this was going to be disgusting. 

I pulled a knife from my boot and cut open the belly. It roared, thrashing again. I crawled up inside, keeping my eyes closed against the press of strange metal pieces and rotted flesh. I reached around in the direction of where the heart would be if this were the real deal. My hand closed on something crystalline and faceted. I jerked it out of place. 

The dragon roared and thrashed hard enough to knock me around. I landed against a sharp piece of metal and gritted my teeth against the pain. I pulled the crystal out with me as I fell back out of the cut I'd made. The thing roared once more before shuddering and falling to pieces all around me. I rolled to the side and covered my head and neck with my arms.

I felt someone grab my legs and pull me out from underneath the wreckage of the construct. When I was finally clear, D picked me up underneath my arms and pulled me back. He set me down next to Frisk who quickly pulled my clothing and leather armor away from the wound in my side. She hissed at what she saw and shoved a cinnamon bunny in my mouth before cleaning the wound and bandaging it.

Sans stood before Gaster, panting hard from exertion. The sword in his hand looked too heavy and while Gaster looked hurt, he didn't look hurt enough. 

"*your little toy is gone. you're done."

"Hardly." Gaster lifted a hand and the two people who'd jumped on scene to help us took that moment to strike. Gaster stumbled, hitting the ground on all fours as the two continued to beat him to death. The lich fell and scattered across the floor as dust.

Now that the danger had passed, I could get a good look at our help. Papyrus, a very tall man with hair and eyes like Sans, cracked his brother hard enough that he hit the floor.

"That's for not telling me what you were planning!"

"*oh come on, paps!"

Undyne dragged Sans to his feet, bright red hair practically glowing in the moon light. "You're lucky I'm not beating the shit out of you right now. I'll let your wife do that."

"Anna will be most displeased."

"*hey! the lich is gone." Sans sighed. "*for now."

"So when were you going to let us in on your relationship with the lich?" Cross asked.

Sans frowned. "*ideally, never."

"Go on."

Papyrus crossed his arms over his chest. "What my brother neglects to mention is that we have yet to figure out how to defeat him permanently."

"That's easy," Frisk said. "Find the phylactery and destroy it."

Sans looked away. "*i know where gaster's phylactery is. this time of night, she's sleeping in her bed across the hall from the room you napped in."

"*Your wife?" D gasped.

Sans shook his head. "*my only little girl. frisk." He sighed heavily. "*eventually, i'll figure out how to remove his life essence from her. until then, gaster knows he has me at an impasse." He looked at me. "*let's get you back to the house. even with your monster food, you'll need the wound cleaned and looked at. you really don't want an infection from undead debris."

Back at the house, Techno Sans sat with Alphys while Frisk and Sans saw to the wound.

"*well, my friend, once you're a skeleton monster again, this won't be an issue for you. but so long as you're here, you're going to have a sizable scar."

I shrugged. "That's okay. My chick digs scars."

Frisk swatted at me with a smile.

D looked at Cross. "*I am passed ready to go home."

Techno Sans suddenly looked worried. "*what do you mean by home?"

Cross looked at him. "You looked at Sans and I when you said you watched a timeline die. Which timeline was it?"

He panicked. "*just-- just a random timeline!"

Cross grabbed the front of his hoodie. "Which timeline?"

He huddled down in his hoodie. "*C.H.A.R.A. erased your timeline. your only way to get it back is to reset."

D fell back against the wall, using it to prop himself up. "*That feeling that something was wrong. I never thought to check..."

Cross let go of Sans, starring at him as he stepped backward. The red reset began to glow in front of him. Frisk gasped, eyes filled with horror.

D leaped from the wall, crashing into Cross, and knocking him to the ground. "*FRISK! NO!" D's eye glowed a bright yellow, trapping Cross in his arms. "*Just wait! We need to talk about this!"

Cross looked up at Frisk, staring for a moment before turning away.


	8. Ep 8 - To Forgetting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Core Issues: Season Two  
> by Nicolle 
> 
> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me. Error!Sans belongs to Lover of Piggies.
> 
> 1\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Ep. 8 - To Forgetting

Frisk's hand shook as it rested on the door knob. Outside the cabin, it was eerily quiet.

"I..."

All morning, there'd been no response to calls and repeated texts. Nothing.

Frisk stared at the door, unwilling to open it, and confirm her deepest fears. I gently put my hand over hers, and together, we turned the knob.

Inside, light filtered through the windows, giving the living room a cheery warmth. But D was not napping on the couch. Papyrus was not greeting us from the kitchen. And Cross was not sitting at the table, working on his art. No one was there, and every trace that anyone had been living in the cabin had been neatly cleaned away. The only evidence that remained were the pictures Grace had taken over the last year, hanging on the wall of family photos.

Frisk covered her face with her hands and wept.

I put my arms around her and held her close until the tears subsided, rocking her back and forth a little. I short cut us away from the cabin and back to her apartment. Leading her into the kitchen and I sat her down at the table. Frisk put her head down while I made her a cup of tea.

"Please stop, C. That doesn't help," she mumbled.

C burst to life on Frisk's shoulder and sat there, watching her. I put a cup of tea in front of her and she sipped it gratefully.

My phone rang. I sighed and answered. "Yes, Fase?"

"I apologize for bothering you, Father, but I have a timeline in need of immediate assistance. The timeline's Sans called for help and it appears that someone on timeline is causing the anomalies. The timeline is in outer space, so you will need to leave ballistic weapons behind. The only human in the timeline is Frisk, so your Frisk will become a monster when you get there. Based on standard models of monster Frisks, she will become a chimera type monster."

I noticed Frisk watching me and cocked my head at her. She nodded. "We'll take the mission. Have you spoken with your brother yet?" I asked.

"Blue has him on the Prime world now, but he will not talk to me. Did I make him mad?"

"You did nothing wrong. He's just doesn't want to face you yet."

"Is that something real people do?"

I rubbed my brow bone and grimaced. Even though Fase had long ago reached consciousness, there was a part of her that would never believe she was a 'real' person. "Yeah."

"Okay. Here are the equations."

My head filled with the familiar mathematical buzz. Frisk stood, heading to the bedroom to change.

I followed her. "Are you sure you're okay to go on a mission?"

Frisk looked at me for a moment before turning back to her closet. An expression I had not seen since her journey Underground passed over her face and a coolness took her eyes. The 'mission mask' I'd thought she'd left behind years ago, settled over her. "I'm fine."

I grasped her shoulders and forced her to look at me. "No, you aren't. I've seen that look on your face before and it's not a good sign. It's okay to sit this one out."

The mask, so long in disuse, cracked, and she closed her eyes, tears at the corners. "I'm sorry. I'll feel better if I have work to occupy me."

"You mean obsess over."

She sighed and looked at her feet.

"Promise me that you'll tell me when you need a break."

Frisk took a deep breath and looked me in the eye sockets. "I promise."

I smiled. "Outer space, huh? You've always wanted to visit the stars."

She smiled and a little bit of her sadness faded at the edges. "White's going to be pissed that we're going without him. He's always wanted to go to one of the space timelines. I think it's his goal in life."

"Yeah, but now that we have an idea about what's going on, White's on lock down."

Frisk nodded and finished dressing. In the equipment room, we grabbed our bags and I solved for the timeline. The equation put us down on a metal and glass walkway over a vast forest. It felt like we were standing over the world. Frisk stepped up to the edge to look down, placing her paws on the railing, too interested in her surroundings to notice her bodily changes. As predicted, she'd become a chimera type monster with pale orange and cream fur over a very short snout. Long, flat ears lay against her head while a furry tail drooped behind her.

Sans, a perfect clone of Blue, sat on the edge of the walkway, boney, shoe-less feet hanging in the air. "*you're bones and frisk right?"

I nodded and held out a hand. "Hey."

He took it and stood before shaking. "*thanks for coming. i've got something really out there. follow me. i'll give you the run down as we head for the forest floor."

A railed platform rose up to the walkway. The railing on the walkway disappeared and he motioned for us to step on the platform.

"*welcome to the delta. it's a massive colony ship and we've been traveling in it for about two thousand years."

"Two thousand?" I stared at him. "How is that possible? How where you able to keep any ship running that long?"

Sans shrugged. "*welp. all the materials that make up the ship? they've all been replaced multiple times. technically speaking, the ship that left earth with all monsters on board is long gone. the ship rebuilds itself every twenty to fifty years and we make enough stops at different mineral rich planets to stock up on what we need."

The platform slowly sank into the trees.

"*from what i understand, monsters were you come from were forced underground. we were forced onto this ship and sent out into space. but the length of time between then and now..." He shrugged. "*we all sort of forgot that humans or the earth ever really existed. when we found frisk floating in a cryostasis pod in space we thought we could go back home. turns out, we have no idea where we are in relation to earth."

The platform touched down gently on the forest floor and we stepped off underneath a beautiful canopy of green.

"Is that the anomaly?" Frisk asked. She was holding tightly to my arm, unsteady on legs with reversed out knees. I put an arm around her waist to help her and she smiled.

Sans shook his skull. "*nope. will you be all right?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah. Just not used to having my knees bend the other way. I keep over compensating. I'll adjust. So what is the anomaly?"

"*humans keep appearing. not found in pods like frisk. just suddenly here."

As we walked along, we spotted a herd of deer, munching grass contentedly in a small meadow. A human woman with long, red gold hair photographed them from behind a bush.

"*hey there, kiddo."

"Hey, Sans. And I'm older than you."

"*only technically."

Frisk stood and turned to us. She easily had ten years on my Frisk, and I wondered how old she was when she went into cryostasis. The irises of her eyes appeared like a glowing rainbow floating on top of water, the pupils opening and closing mechanically. She took a quick picture of us and frowned at the display, shaking her head. "It never matches."

"What doesn't match?" Frisk asked.

She pointed to her eyes. "What I 'see' versus what I capture." She pointed at Frisk. "You look human to me. But the photo says otherwise."

Frisk and I looked at each other.

"She is human," I said. "Frisk's body was changed so our being here wouldn't disrupt your timeline."

"The humans who appear randomly. What do you see when you look at them?" Frisk asked.

"I see monsters." She held out a hand. "Frisk Provost. I'm the Delta's lead engineer and Asriel's second in command."

My girl took her hand with a smile. "Frisk Gaster, though most people still call my Church." She looked at Sans. "Can we talk to the humans who've appeared?"

Sans shook his skull. "*can't. after one appears for a while, it disappears after anywhere from an hour to a day."

Frisk frowned. "How frequently do they appear and what are they doing?"

Those strange eyes watched us carefully. "They appear once a day. Some just stand around looking confused. Others look like they are actively engaging in some task before disappearing. The ones that look confused are the ones that will be here the longest and have strange and conflicting stories when they have anything to say at all."

"So we're waiting for the next anomaly then?" I asked.

"*alphys and the ship's A.I. are watching for it." Sans gestured for us to follow him. "*your investigation may take a few days, so we have a place for you two to stay." He led us to a fake tree with a door in it. He opened it to reveal a long corridor with two moving walkways carrying various monsters one direction or the other. We stepped onto the walkway that took us to the right.

Several monsters waved to Provost when they saw her and she waved back, all smiles.

"How long have you been here?" Frisk asked.

Provost shrugged. "Twenty years. I am forty three years old if you don't count the thousand or so I was in cryostasis."

"Why were you in cryostasis in the first place?" I asked.

She sighed, like she wanted the memory to fade and it refused to die even years later. "I volunteered to be on a Faster Than Light ship heading toward what we thought was a habitable planet in the Tau Ceti system. We were all put into cryo-sleep while the ship was still in orbit around the Earth. I don't know how I ended up floating in space in my pod. Where the Delta picked me up was light years away from the intended path of the ship."

Frisk looked at me. "I know you're being polite by not asking, but it is okay to ask about my eyes." She smiled at my nervous cough. "My eyes and a few other organs failed during the long cryostasis, especially in a pod in which I was not moved around on a regular basis to keep my muscles from atrophying. Alphys replaced my eyes with these cybernetic ones. The other organs, she was able to clone and replace. I did spend a long time relearning how to do basic things like walk and feed myself."

She waved to a bunch of monster children who clamored for her attention while going in the opposite direction, shouting 'Osiris! Osiris!'

"You're quite popular," my girl noted.

"That's only because I'm the only human on the ship. A lot of monsters thought that humans were a myth after being so long among the stars. No one besides the ship's A.I. was there at launch." She choked off a sudden laugh, her smile wide. "Well, no one here was officially at launch." She shook her head. "Monsters here are so far along generation wise that the original monsters at launch are legendary. Especially Dr. Gaster since he built the ship. Records say that he died during launch."

"Why were they yelling 'Osiris?'"

Provost shrugged. "When information was first given to the press about my existence, my name wasn't released, only the name of my ship, the Osiris. It become my nickname pretty fast."

"Has there been a push to go back to Earth?" I asked.

Sans fielded that one. "*yes. but we have no idea where we are in relation to earth. even if we reversed course and went back the way we came, the computer models have been clear that it would take us just as long to go back and we've already mined the best planets for mineral resources on that route."

The moving walkway deposited us at a large, open doorway into a new section of the ship. We stepped into a mechanized city, bright with neon. Sans led us to a hotel and handed us key cards to a room on the top floor.

"If this is a closed community, how do you have hotels?" Frisk asked.

"If we have time for a space walk before you leave, I'll take you out to show you," Provost answered. "The Delta is massive in size. Most people never actually get to see even half of it in their life times. New Home," she indicated the city, "is a popular vacation spot. As are the beaches at St. Canard City."

"*after you two have settled in, i'll take you over to the police station. my brother's been keeping records of what all the humans actually doing something were up too before they disappeared."

Frisk and I quickly stowed our gear to get to the police station. She read over the files while this world's Papyrus leaned over her shoulder, explaining details.

"So every 'human' seen at task was either stealing something or fabricating something, correct?"

"YES."

"Any ideas on what you would use these items for?"

Papyrus shook his head. "THE LIST IS TOO VARIED. IT CONTAINS EVERYTHING FROM COMMON ELEMENTS TO TRAVEL SUPPLIES TO MACHINERY OF ALL KINDS."

Frisk sat up suddenly. "Who are you talking too?"

Papyrus and Sans looked at her, confused.

"*we aren't-"

She waved them off. "Does it know what's going on?"

"She's talking to C, an amalgamation A.I. and human soul," I supplied.

"*such a thing is possible?" Sans asked.

I shrugged. "C is a weird case. Our Asriel made the A.I. and had no idea his brother's soul possessed it until a few years ago."

Frisk looked at us. "Is there anyway I can talk to the ship's A.I. directly?"

"*there isn't any way that I-"

"Yes," Provost said, the color in her eyes shifting from red blue to yellow green. "There's a speaker in here, so it can respond."

Sans looked at her. "*that's not possible."

She smiled. "Give it a go, Sans."

I frowned. "Why aren't you using your hologram, C? It confuses the hell out of everyone when you don't."

C's voice popped on my comm. "Let's just say I'm having some issues in here right now, and I don't want to split my attention. Delta's pretty cool though."

I thought of the 'house' in Frisk's head and its 'inhabitants.' "Fair enough."

Sans just kept staring at his Frisk like she'd grown a second head.

She sighed, stifling a little chuckled. "Hello, Delta."

A yellow, holographic Save Star appeared to float in front of us. "Hello, Frisk."

"*you cannot be serious," Sans moaned. "*you can talk?"

"Of course I can, Sans. I have been conscious for a thousand years."

Sans rubbed the sides of his skull in small circles. "*you've got to be kidding me. how did you find out it could talk?"

Provost looked at him with blue yellow eyes and a hand on one hip. "Delta is an A.I. I assumed that if it was twelve hundred years old and hadn't entered rampancy, then it was conscious and it could communicate directly."

"Delta? Do you have any ideas what the stolen materials could be used for?" my Sunflower asked.

"Yes. They are very likely being used to build a small ship. By the food supplies gathered, I believe the ship is to be big enough to transport at least four monsters."

"Can someone build something like that without you knowing?"

"Oh yes! I do not have sensors in specific parts of the ship, though to build an actual craft they would have to do it in a place where I could see it happening. Partial assembly could easily happen without my knowledge."

"Can you give us a map with places your sensors do not reach highlighted?" Frisk asked.

"Yes." A map appeared on the screen with several highlighted areas.

"Thank you."

"I WILL SEND PEOPLE TO INVESTIGATE EACH AREA."

"Would you like a hand with that?" I asked.

Papyrus shook his skull. "I APPRECIATE THE OFFER, BUT I MUST ASK YOU TO STAY BEHIND. SOME OF THE AREAS DO NOT HAVE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY IN PLACE."

Frisk took my girl's hand. "It will take them a while to search all the areas. Let me show you the Delta."

Sans and I floated behind the girls in the vacuum of space. Both Frisks floated in super thin, super warm space suits while Sans and I wore nothing, not actually needing protection, just a line to the ship. The Delta was, as promised, massive on a scale that I was completely unprepared for. I felt like an ant on the face of Jupiter. We were floating outside the bottom most orb which contained New Home. Three oval 'plates' intersected layers of orbs, like a stack of pancakes with layers of cherries inbetween.

The Frisks held hands, both giggling in excitement. They were clearly enjoying themselves in the endless night sky, playing in the zero gravity dark.

"*they're getting along well. i was worried about that since my kiddo has been nervous about other humans since the mass reset."

"All Frisks are like this. When they aren't under stress, they gravitate toward each other, completely fascinated. They act like siblings or long time best friends who haven't seen each other in forever."

"*all of them?"

I knew who he meant when he asked. "Once the A.I. plaguing him was gone, him especially."

They both looked at us. "How is it that you're able to talk without oxygen or anything to even vibrate to make sound in a vacuum?"

"*Magic," we replied.

Sans' eye lit up green. "*sorry to cut it short, girls, but papyrus found something."

Back on the ship, we found Papyrus kneeling next to a small black box. "IT OPENS INTO A STEERING UNIT FOR A SMALL SPACE CRAFT. THE KIND YOU WOULD HAVE ON HAND AS A BACK UP IF YOUR MAIN TERMINAL WAS DAMAGED."

"Someone is building a craft. But where would they go? Are there life sustaining planets they could make it to before the food they've gathered runs out?" my Frisk asked.

Sans shook his head. "*even if there were, you'd have to worry about bacteria from that planet attacking you. you'd have no immunity to it."

"Would it be enough food if you intended to be in cryostasis for most, if not all, of the journey?"

Sans and Papyrus looked at each other.

"THE STOLEN FOOD IS SPECIFICALLY THE KIND OF RATIONS WE SEND WITH OUR EXPLORATION TEAMS WHEN WE ENTER A NEW SYSTEM." Papyrus' tablet beeped. "WE HAVE ANOTHER HUMAN SITING. SECURITY FORCES ARE HAVING TROUBLE DETAINING HIM."

We hurried to the site of the appearance. The 'human' was in a defensive stance. Several monsters circled him, a few of them looked hurt, but he looked to be actively trying not to harm them, just keep them at bay.

"Frisk!" both girls yelled.

He looked at them and immediately relaxed, dropping his fists. "Oh Thank God. Something familiar. Do either of you two know why I'm here or why I look like a human?"

My girl and I hurried over to him.

"You're aware of other timelines?" I asked.

He nodded. "I was part of the mass reset."

Papyrus came up next to us. "LET'S GET YOU OFF THE STREETS."

He nodded and followed us to the nearest police precinct.

"So where am I, exactly?"

"New Home, on massive colony ship," Frisk said, she put a cup of Golden Flower tea in front of him.

"Thank you." He took a sip. "Ah man, this stuff is always the best."

I held out a hand. "I'm Bones."

He hesitated and looked between Frisk and I. "You are... Church?"

Frisk looked to me for a moment and back to him. "Yes."

Suddenly, the 'human' looked sure of himself. "Okay. I was confused because I always thought, by the way Cross talked, that you were human."

"You're a Viper."

He smiled. "No. Just a merc, but apparently my past was similar enough for a kidnapping. I'm Frisk Lyall." He looked around. "So this really is another timeline?"

"An outer space one."

"Really? That's pretty awesome! So do either of you two know why I'm here?"

Frisk shook her head. "Still working on that. All we know is that eventually you disappear from this timeline."

"Well that's not encourag-" He was suddenly whisked backwards, disappearing as he fell out of his chair. A blue line hung from the chair. Frisk reached for it and I grabbed her. I couldn't pull her back in time and we both landed in a tumble on a grassy hill outside a city that looked suspiciously like St. Canard.

A Sans, black as night but for his red sweater and strange gloves stood over us. He stepped back into an opening rift.

"Wait!" Frisk yelled. "Just tell us what you're doing here!"

The red and yellow eyes in his skull darted between the two of us. "*putting people back where they belong." He disappeared.

A werewolf Frisk in dark fur looked down at us. "Hey! You are human!"

She smiled. "Yeah. I didn't actually get to telling you that, huh?"

He smiled and offered a paw up. "No worries. You were just staying on mission. So now what? I assume you aren't stuck here."

"Nope." I put an arm around my Sunflower. "See ya, later."

He saluted as I took us back to the colony ship.

Sans rushed us, panicked. "*what happened?!"

"I think I have a line on what's going on," Frisk answered. She looked at her older self. "Your eyes aren't lying to you. You're seeing things as they actually are. That was a monster Frisk. And the reason he disappeared is because Error was depositing him back on his home timeline."

"*error is... helping?"

"He's been helping us this whole time, trying to fix the anomalies popping up everywhere."

"*why? i thought he believed everything but prime was an anomaly."

"He once touched the Prime Frisk." Frisk looked at me. "What if the Prime Frisk convinced him all that time ago that the other timelines weren't anomalies? Helped him understand what an actual anomaly looked like?"

"So if someone can port people into the timeline, why don't they figure out how to port themselves out?"

A smile tugged the corner of Frisk's mouth. "I don't think whoever is doing this knows they are porting people from other timelines. Most people in any timeline are completely unaware of the existence of others."

Papyrus caught her drift. "THEY THINK THEY'RE PORTING PEOPLE HERE FROM EARTH."

Frisk pointed at him. "Exactly."

"*why?"

"They want to go back. Why else would you build a ship knowing that any habitable planet could kill you because you have no natural immunity to the bacteria on that planet? Because you intend to go all the way back to Earth."

"*it seems a far leap. why not just port yourself to earth using whatever device they've got to port people here?"

Provost jumped in, eyes green purple. "Because they can't reverse the process! I bet whoever is porting people here is confused as to why they keep disappearing. He or she is trying to put more humans here to drum up support for going back to Earth!"

I looked to Frisk. "What's our plan?"

"We set a trap by making several 'humans' appear in succession. We'll ask Delta to scan each crowd for the familiar face or faces. That should flush out whoever we're looking for."

"How are we going to make 'humans' just appear?" the other Frisk asked, eyes green blue.

She pulled out her phone. "We cheat and ask Fase to make our volunteers look human." She frowned and rubbed her temples. "Tomorrow."

Sans nodded. "*agreed. papyrus and i will round up a few volunteers for us from the royal guard. frisk can," he sighed heavily, "*talk to the ship. i'll grab someone to get you two back to your hotel."

Dinner and a shower later, Frisk twisted in the bed restlessly.

"You okay?"

"I can't get comfortable."

I gently brushed her tail. "This getting in the way?"

"Yeah and it's hard to sleep on my side."

"How about I read to you until you fall asleep? You're pretty good about sleeping on your side when I tuck you in."

She nodded and I sat up. She curled up next to me, cuddled under my arm.

"I just finished reading this to Paps and he really liked it. It's 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman. It's got a vampire, a lot of ghosts, and a little boy with a penchant for trouble."

She smiled and rested her head against my rib cage, eyes closed. She was asleep by the time I started the second chapter. Gently laying her on her side, I spooned her back, resting my arm on her thigh. Some where in the night, a soft sound pulled me from sleep. The door to the balcony was open. I poked my skull in the doorway and found Frisk sitting on a chair, crying as she looked out over the neon beauty of night time New Home. I picked her up and held her against me.

She wiped at her face with her paws. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

I shook my skull. "It's no trouble. Ever. When you need me, tell me." I brushed a tear from her cheek with a boney finger. "I'm always here for you, aren't I?" I swayed side to side, rocking her. "I've seen the way other Frisk's react to Cross. Like he belongs there. Even the ones who died as a result of his actions, they are happy to have him back in the fold as it were. But it's different with you. Like he's filling a role in your life that you've long needed."

Frisk sniffed, looking at her paws. "As a Viper, it was important that we worked as a team. But it was also important that we weren't attached to each other. We'd go through something awful and we weren't allowed to talk to anyone about it except the assigned therapist, not even the other team members involved. Cross was the friend I needed during that time and I'm finding I still need. And now..." She turned her face against my ribs, shoulders heaving with a new round of sobs.

I held her, swaying side to side in a steady rhythm. Eventually, her tears subsided and she drifted back to sleep. I carried her back to bed and tucked us both in, petting her hair as I fell asleep.

Sans retrieved us in the morning. "*we have our volunteers. we just need to know placement and timing."

"Where do the most sightings occur?"

"IN NEW HOME."

"Then that's were we'll have our volunteers appear. We need enough time between appearances that one or more people can travel between them, but not so we catch the same bystanders over and over." Frisk pulled out her phone. "Fase? I need some help." One explanation and a plan later, we were waiting in the New Home Royal Offices for the results of the appearances.

"I have identified four individuals who appeared on scene at all 'human' sightings," the Delta A.I. informed us. "With the exception of one, each had to cross a considerable distance to get to the sighting. Two of them match my records of individuals who routinely enter areas where I cannot monitor activity."

"WE WILL INVESTIGATE THOSE TWO FIRST."

Frisk, eyes red yellow, looked at her Sans. "Check out their homes while they aren't there?"

Sans looked at her. "*i will never understand your willingness to simply break and enter."

She shrugged.

"*are you ever going to tell me what you did for a living on earth?"

"Nah." She rubbed the top of his skull. "You'd be too disappointed."

He rolled his eyes. "*warrants are already issued. you two head with papyrus to the first suspect's apartment. frisk and i will check the house of the second."

At the apartment, Frisk picked the lock. "Interesting."

"WHAT IS?"

"That the lock isn't more high tech. This is pretty standard for my time."

"AH! WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN WASTING ELECTRICITY ON SOMETHING WE DO NOT NEED TOO."

"Fair enough. Makes my job easier." She popped the lock and Papyrus went inside first, checking every room.

"IT APPEARS TO BE EMPTY."

He was right. The apartment hadn't been lived in for years judging by the dust on the furniture. My foot struck a bag next to the door. I knelt and unzipped it.

"But someone has been here. This is a bug out bag," I said.

Frisk knelt next to me and turned on her flashlight to look inside. "There isn't any dust on the outside and it's just inside the door, meaning it's a stashed bag and was stashed recently. Either someone is very well prepared for a disaster or thought they would need to go into hiding for anywhere from twenty-four to seventy-two hours."

"Do you think someone has figured out we're on to them?" I asked.

"No, I think who ever made this bag did so because they know something is going to happen and wanted to be able to hide until it was over."

Papyrus' eyes glowed. "IT APPEARS MY BROTHER AND FRISK HAVE FOUND SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT."

"Got anything on you we can drop in here to track the bag?"

He nodded and dropped a small device into the bag. We put the bag back in it's place and locked the door behind us. At the house, Sans and Provost were looking over an easily recognizable piece of machinery. I had a broken one in my old lab in Snowdin. It was a time machine.

"Is that one yours?" I asked.

Sans shook his head. "*nah. i even double checked to make sure. looks like this guy got his hands on a set of blue prints and used them to build it. check this though." He handed me the blueprints. "*the thing is labelled as a deep space portal and some key components are switched around."

I stared at the document in my hand. "The notes on this are magical, not scientific. Whoever made this was trying to use magic where their scientific knowledge didn't stretch. And in doing so created some strange results."

"Is this the machine then that's porting people from other timelines?" Frisk asked.

I nodded. "This is what's doing it." I flipped the blueprints around and pointed to a section of the notes. "This is complete madness. And utterly genius."

He nodded. "*if it could be refined, it'd be a new way to travel between timelines without going through the void. know any sans-es who could figure this out?"

"Oh yeah."

"*what was in the apartment?"

"NOTHING BUT A BUG OUT BAG," Papyrus answered. "IT IS NOW 'BUGGED' ITSELF."

Sans snorted at his brother's joke.

Provost, eyes blue orange, turned to us. "Look at this." She handed Sans another blueprint from a drawer. "Plans for a small space craft. Made for two people."

"Then why do we have theft of rations for four people?" I asked.

"OVER STOCKING?"

Frisk's eyes changed to green orange. "Delta picked up two other people. Let's see if they are involved and how."

Careful to leave everything as we found it, we split up to check the apartments of the other two. Frisk carefully popped the lock. The apartment was quiet, but lived in. And covering the walls of the bathroom were a large number of human looking masks.

"Well, we found our 'human,'" I said.

Frisk nodded. "With the number of masks and appearances in different places, I'm betting on at least three of our suspects being involved."

Papyrus' eyes glowed.

I looked at him. "Did you brother find something?"

He raised a hand for silence and cocked his head to the side as if listening. After a moment, he looked at Frisk and I. "THE FOURTH APARTMENT IS CLEAN. THE TEAMS SEARCHING THE AREAS OUTSIDE OF THE A.I.'S VIEW HAVE FINISHED AND ARE BRINGING EVERYTHING TO THE PRECINCT IN NEW HOME."

"How about Sans and Provost?"

"THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY THERE."

"Let's go," Frisk said. Papyrus led us back to New Home.

In a basketball court the precinct used for recreation, all the pieces of a ship partially assembled outside of Delta's watchful eye were laid out according to the blueprints. Provost looked over the pieces while Sans sat on the bleachers, watching her work.

"What's the story?" I asked.

"*there are two ships here and they're both ready for final assembly."

"Where are the suspects?"

"*work, likely. i got us warrants to check their places, not take them in."

Frisk's eyes changed to a sudden rainbow wash. "So let's just sit back and wait for them to come looking for their stuff." She stood and took my Sunflower's hands. "Come on. There's a great restaurant down the street and we could totally use some lunch."

She giggled. "Lead on!"

Sans and I followed, both of us with the same bemused expression. The girls practically danced down the sidewalk ahead of us,

A tall, dark furred, goat monster came up behind my Frisk and grabbed her up in a bear hug, one hand over her mouth. She went limp in his arms slipping down enough to elbow him hard in the groin. He dropped her and she spun to slam her palms into his stomach, knocking him to one knee.

A dog monster wrapped a rope around the other Frisk's neck. She suddenly spun around and quick as a snake, and struck her attacker in the eyes with her fingers in a move I'd seen my Frisk practice hundreds of times. The monster cried out and she punched him hard enough to flatten him on the pavement.

Sans and I both threw bone barriers around their attackers before they could recover.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" A familiar voice yelled over the commotion. The crowd parted for Undyne to come through, Alphys right behind her. "Haven't any of you idiots learned yet that you can't take Frisk?"

"It's her fault!" A female dog monster broke through the crowd, rushing to the dog monster's bone cage. "Why couldn't you have just died in the vacuum of space?"

Alphys fumed. "But if Frisk hadn't come here, we-"

Provost waved her off, shaking her head.

Undyne looked to Sans as four more officers showed up. "Take the three of them back to the precinct."

"*yes, ma'am."

"Don't fall asleep booking them."

He saluted her.

Undyne turned to my Frisk. "I was going to ask if you were all right, but I'm pretty sure I should be more worried about the other guy. Anyway I can convince you to join the Royal Guard?"

Frisk smiled and held up both paws. "I'm flattered! But I must decline."

Sans pulled her along. "*come on. i need a statement."

Provost sighed. "Well, lunch will be waiting then."

The three monsters sat quietly at a table in the precinct's interrogation room. We stood to the side while Sans pulled out a set of blue prints.

"*so i guess the stolen rations for four meant two portions for you, huh?"

The goat monster did not answer.

He held up the blueprints. "*which one of you built this?"

All three looked surprised, not expecting that to be his next question.

"I did." The male dog monster said.

"*this is legitimately brilliant, but it doesn't do what you think it does."

"It does exactly what I designed it to do!"

Sans shook his skull. "*you aren't teleporting humans here from Earth. You are pulling monsters here from other places and the machine is altering their appearance."

The dog monster's face sank. "Impossible! They are humans!"

"*nope. we figured it out because one of those monsters with an altered appearance happened to be a friend of the chimera over there." He jerked a thumb at my Frisk.

The dog monster looked around the room slowly, eyes wide with awful realization.

The female leaped to her feet pointing at Provost. "It's your fault! It's all your fault! If you'd never come here, he wouldn't have become obsessed with some legend! He wouldn't have tried to build some horrible machine or come up with such a stupid plan to fly back to Earth! He would have been just normal!"

"Why the bug out bag, then?" she asked, eyes changing to purple red.

The male looked at her suddenly. "Bug out bag?"

The female sank to her chair looking at her feet. "I never intended to go. I thought, maybe if I disappeared, you'd think twice about trying to leave."

Provost, eyes yellow blue, led Frisk and I out of the room. "Sans can handle the rest."

"So what did Alphys mean earlier? What was she about to say?" I asked.

She sighed, eyes red blue. "The ship picked up a microbe from somewhere and it was wreaking havoc on the population, traveling via a deteriorating coolant filtration system. I carry the antibodies to fight it. If they hadn't found me floating in space, the only people left alive on this ship would have been Delta and the ghosts." She looked at her younger self. "Try again for lunch before you two leave?"

My Sunflower smiled. "Yes."

The restaurant in question was a noodle house and we took seats at the bar with Alphys who was already halfway through a bowl of ramen.

The girls talked while watching several flame monsters make noodles behind the bar.

"May I visit your timeline sometime? I know it won't be the same, but I miss the Earth."

Frisk smiled as she slurped a long noodle. "Sure. Do you remember it at all?"

"A little." Her face became wistful. "My parents had this cabin on a hill overlooking a lake. Even though I know it was just a lake-"

"In your mind it's an ocean," Frisk finished. "You're a Viper."

Provost smiled sadly, eyes a rainbow wash again. "What gave it away?"

"I'm one too. We all move the same way. Apply force both physical and social, the same way."

The rainbow remained in her eyes. "I'd like to say that I don't remember much of my service anymore, but that would be a lie and it's the reason I volunteered to leave the Earth. I wanted to forget."

Frisk looked down into her soup and I could see the tears threatening. She lifted her tea cup. "Here's to forgetting."

They clinked tea cups and drank. After lunch we grabbed our things and I took us home. After stowing our gear, I walked Frisk up to her room. The door to the empty apartment next to Frisk's was open, familiar voices emanating from within. Frisk ran to the door and froze staring at Cross. D and his brother stood behind him. And both took a step backwards.

"Church? Are you all right?"

Tears welled in Frisk's eyes as her hand gripped tightly into fists. A tear fell as she ran at him and threw a punch. Cross took a step back, catching her fist with his hand to redirect the momentum.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONE! I THOUGHT YOU'D RESET!"

She threw another punch and he weaved around it.

"I'm here! I'm here! I didn't reset!" He grabbed her hands and held them tightly. "Blue offered me a job. We're moving into the building." He let go over her hands and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I was going to surprise you with it. Ask you to go picking for furniture with me."

Frisk hugged him suddenly, face buried against his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her. "I made my decision. I'm not leaving, Frisk. Promise."


	9. Ep 9 - Hammer Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Core Issues: Season Two  
> by Nicolle 
> 
> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> 1\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.

Ep. 9 - Hammer Time

Necromancer Sans looked over the Kiddo and Chara as they sat on the table next to each other, her hand resting on his arm. Though she'd recently turned eighteen, Frisk was still wearing stripes in the form of a black and red hoodie over a pair of black jeans. Chara, despite being more than a hundred years old, matched her in green and black. Both wore a patch with the Delta Rune carefully sewn onto the sleeves. Flowey sat on Frisk's shoulder, waiting patiently for a diagnosis. Blue napped on a couch next to Techno Sans, while Red leaned over the back, watching the proceedings.

"*do you speak in a nonsense language to each other?"

"All the time," Flowey answered for them. "And they did it even before being split apart."

"*do you remember when it started?"

Chara looked at Frisk. "Just after I started possessing her. Frisk would say something completely unintelligible, and I could understand it. And I respond in kind."

"*is the cryptophasia significant?" Red asked.

"*it confirms my suspicions about their biology. i do not believe the virus was trying to split them apart. i believe that it was trying to kill her while she was relatively unprotected, but it had not accounted for chara's presence. similar in a way that a sickness does not account for the natural immunity of the host. it could not destroy her with chara in place and instead, it split them apart. in the splitting it made a set of fraternal twins based on how they already related to each other."

"Does that mean she's now open to attack?" Chara asked.

Frisk looked at him. "Yes and no. A computer virus can only exploit an existing security hole and only if it knows about it. C.H.A.R.A. made a virus specifically to attack me but it assumed that I was exactly like Fase. After the failed attempt, the virus would recognize that I am completely different and would need to find a different way to attack me."

"So why hasn't it yet?" I asked.

"*i am no expert in your technology, but it it acts anything like a sickness does, it needs to find a way in." He held up a hand. "*skin is pretty durable. any flu needs a way in past the skin, which is why it is often transferred by air. everyone's got to breath." He looked over the skeletal versions of himself. "*well, most of us."

"My timeline is my skin," Frisk said. Her brown eyes lit up. "My timeline is my skin!" She hopped off the table and pulled out the white board hidden behind Fase's terminal. "Okay. Let's assume timelines are like skin. C.H.A.R.A. can't attack without finding a way in first." She started writing strings of numbers on the board. "So the first thing we see is experimentation. It figures out that some timelines are more vulnerable than others and based on the information in Fase's anomaly file, it can do serious damage to timelines the furthest away in variation from Prime."

Necromancer Sans cocked his head to the side, looking at the board. "*what are you doing?"

Techno Sans stood and looked over the board. "*she's creating a firewall based on the original timeline." He looked at her, honestly confused. "*how are you able to do this?"

She paused a moment before continuing to write. "I guess you can thank Cross for that. He put me under so much stress, that it altered the way I looked at the code."

Techno Sans looked at her. "*do you see numbers when you look at everything?"

She shook her head, green and white locks twisting around her shoulders. "No. Numbers are just the easiest way to communicate it." She stopped writing for a moment. "I don't have the words to describe what I see."

Red elbowed Blue. "*i told you she was better than us."

Blue opened his right eye socket and gave Red a smile. "*of that, i had no doubt."

"I can't do what Fase does. She can fix entire timelines and bring missing ones back so long as she has access to the core data well. But all of that is strictly science. Prime is secure, not because it's the original, but because it's not simply code. It's magic as well. And the further away we get from Prime, the less magic a timeline has. The less protection over all. This will add the necessary magical component to all timelines, rendering the C.H.A.R.A. virus' attacks ineffective."

Fase appeared as a young child on the main terminal screen. "I will not be able to implement your solution, Frisk. I am not capable of magic."

Frisk turned around and pointed at Blue. "Time to get cracking, Lazy Bones!"

He stood with a smile. "*i'll walk you through what i need you to do, fase."

Chara jumped down from the table and leaned in to Frisk. "Just so we're clear, this means you aren't dead because of me. Again. You're welcome."

She elbowed him in the side and only received a chuckle for her efforts. She turned back to the white board. "Using this, we can lock C.H.A.R.A. in void. It will give us the time we need to figure out how to trap it and delete it for good."

Necromancer Sans cocked his head to the side. "*fase is unable to trap it? i was under the impression that you had trapped it once before."

Fase's digital image frowned. "I was able to trick it into confinement while breaking the barrier, but the same firewall I used will not work twice. C.H.A.R.A. is very clever. As it stands, I am overworked fixing all the problems it's caused. This will allow me the time to calculate an effective prison."

A soft alarm went off.

Fase huffed. "As I was saying..."

She disappeared from the screen and a timeline being monitored on a side screen moved front and center. Our human swapfell Sans was leaning against a tree in red and black shorts and red button down, with his phone to his ear. He waited patiently for a response with the bone mask that covered the scars around his mouth in his hand.

"I'm sorry for the delay in responding, brother. What do you need assistance with? And isn't Papyrus with you?"

Sans snorted. "I'll be lucky if I get home when this mission is over and my brother is awake! He isn't in the lab today and the surf's choppy, so he'll only get out of bed if Frisk asks him too. I am calling for assistance though. And someone who's genre savvy in old, British, gothic horror films."

Frisk suddenly swung around, forcing Chara and Flowey to duck her swinging hair. "I want to go!"

Red shook his skull. "*nope. sugar blossom can handle it."

"That's not happening," I said. "She's out with Cross today."

Red's smile was as wide as his skull. "i was wondering why she wasn't here. the piss ant is still grovelling, huh?"

I smirked. Red would never admit it out loud, but he'd grown fond of Cross. 'Piss Ant' wasn't an insult anymore. It was his nickname.

"Come on, Sans. This is right up Frisk's alley. You know she's up to all hours of the night binge watching Hammer horror flicks when she doesn't have class. Az and I will be there just to watch her back," Chara said.

Fase reappeared on the screen, looking as if she were on the timeline next to Sans, though I knew it was only an illusion. "I believe sending Frisk would be a very good idea. Father? Would you be willing to go with them?"

I nodded. "Sure."

Red pointed a boney finger at Chara. "*you're just dodging training, ya little prick." He sighed. "*fine." He opened a rift in space next to himself and pulled a backpack through. Frisk's full body leopard Blaster jumped through at the same time, sensing it's master was close. Red tossed the bag to Chara, who shouldered it as the Blaster bounded over to Frisk, rubbing it's boney body around her legs.

"Geez. Heavy enough?" Chara grumbled.

"*it's packed for three people. i should hope it's heavy. just be happy i'm not putting extra weight in it a la undyne."

Chara sighed. "Fair enough." He looked down at Frisk. "Finished over here?"

She nodded.

He looked at Flowey. "You ready?"

Flowey nodded. "When Bones is ready, we are."

Fase disappeared from the video screen. "You'll have incoming in a moment, Brother."

"Thanks, Fase." Sans hung up. His timeline transferred back to a smaller monitor.

Frisk picked up her Blaster while Chara put his arm around her waist. I put a hand on Frisk's shoulder, and the equations poured from the terminal's speakers. As the mathematical buzz filled my skull, I noticed Frisk's head was down, memorizing the code. I took us into the void and landed us next to Sans.

He stood up from the tree, his bone mask back in place. "Hey there, Wahine! How are you?"

Frisk put her Blaster down and hugged Sans tightly. "I'm doing all right!"

"If I'd known you were coming I would have brought your birthday present along." He smiled. "I guess that means you're just going to have to visit and spend a day on the beach."

"Oh! the hardship!"

Sans stepped back to look at Flowey and Chara. "You two keeping a good eye on your Frisk?"

Flowey nodded while Chara rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Bones. How are you and your girl doing?"

I shrugged. "Not bad."

"Verdana have the baby yet?"

I nodded. "Little Abigail was eight pounds, six ounces at birth, and is, quiet possibly, the most spoiled two month old in all of time and space."

"What's the anomaly?" Frisk asked.

"That's just it. I don't think the problem here is an anomaly. But I don't know anything about lurid British horror, so I can't tell."

Frisk pulled her sleeve out and pulled out a marker. "What've you got so far?"

Sans crossed his arms over his chest. "Something is running around killing monsters by stealing their memories. At first we thought it was a strange gorilla creature that one of the royal guard killed."

Frisk stopped taking notes on her arm. "Do the victims have completely white eyes with blood dripping from eyes, mouth, and ears?"

"Yes."

Frisk jotted something down in her personal shorthand. "That sounds like 'Horror Express.' So the murders are still happening, right?"

Sans nodded.

"Definitely 'Horror Express.' If I remember correctly, whoever killed the creature last became infected with the alien intelligence inhabiting the gorilla." She popped the lid back on the marker and wrapped the writing in tape to keep it from smudging. "So let's find the royal guardsman in question."

"Do we have a point of contact?" I asked.

"Sans and Frisk. You'll want to stay on guard around them though. Doctor Sans is a mad scientist and prone to sudden urges to experiment on anything he finds interesting. And Frisk will suddenly become Chara a la Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Sans motioned for us to follow him and we walked down a haunted forest path to Snowdin. Frisk's Blaster jumped into a tree and followed us along the branches until the tree line fell away and the town appeared.

"Oh wow! Snowdin looks like a massive movie set!"

And it truly did. Set designers worked on false houses and backgrounds while the residents of Snowdin all appeared as players in this, that, or the other old school horror film. Abominable snowmen, werewolves, vampires, and mummies mingled with 'normal' people ready to be horror stricken at the appropriate moment. Directors, cameramen, FX and make up mingled in and through everything.

Sans nodded. "The only problem is that the 'actors' actually are what you see. And half of them don't even seem to know when they are being filmed. A director will yell action, but life continues as 'normal' while the camera films. It's like the old horror films are reality TV here."

Frisk looked everywhere excitedly, trying and failing to hide her happy giggles. "I feel like I should be in costume!"

Sans laughed. "While we're at it, you can help me come up with a sexy costume for next Halloween."

She rolled her eyes. "You want scantily clad? You should dress up like my Ebott U professors. They barely cover anything."

My shoulders heaved between my chuckles. "Oh God. You picked up your father's sense of humor."

"At least she didn't pick up Red's. R-rated 'dad jokes' are not funny," Chara grumbled. "It doesn't help that his 'sugar plum' laughs at them."

"That she does," I agreed.

"Your professors are that bad?" Sans asked.

"My classes at New Home U are great! But my advisor said, since I'm human, I need to take some gen eds top side at Ebott U. Those are depressing at best and abhorrent at worst. History faculty miss represent monsters as sweet angels or horrific demons depending on the political persuasion of the instructor and whether or not a recognizable monster is in the class. Literature faculty have no idea how to interpret monster writings and fake the knowledge by coming up with the strangest of explanations. They don't understand that Flarful's poetry about living in a hole in the ground is literally about living in a hole in the ground."

Sans chuckled. "But that's those aren't the kicker, are they?"

"Nope. Sex ed is the worst. You're from a Fell timeline so you know how sex works in one. Monster classes on the subject are approached with the utmost seriousness. Everyone understands that a misstep could land you into a bad personal and political situation." She sighed. "The human classes are filled with embarrassed giggling and sheepish laughter. They treat an incredibly important subject so flippantly it's infuriating. It did not help that everything they said about monster sex was patently wrong and likely to get everyone involved in serious trouble." Her shoulders fell with her sigh.

A red gleam in Sans' eyes accompanied his smile. "So how have you managed not to out yourself in frustration?"

She sighed. "I took a page from my brother's book and now class time is nap time. Since I'm not officially an adult among monsters until I'm twenty-two, I don't feel the need to care."

He rolled his eyes, but his smile grew as he tugged on the sleeve of her striped hoodie. "So terrible. How much longer?"

"For Ebott U? Just this semester. I graduate from New Home next year. I just have to decide between grad school and med school."

I looked down at her. "I'm sure Red and Dings both have an opinion on that."

She paused and looked up at me. "They've said nothing. I thought they'd try to convince me to go one way or the other, but neither of them do. Even Asgore doesn't pressure me one way or another." She reached up and tugged on one of Flowey's leaves. "Why is that, Asriel?"

"You aren't the heir to the throne. Now that I'm 'back in the picture' as it where, he's decided to simply enjoy watching you make your own decisions." He frowned sourly. "That isn't to say he isn't vocal with me about his opinion on other things involving you."

Chara nodded in agreement.

"Is it okay?" She asked, one hand gently, but absently, touching a petal.

One leaf came up to touch her hand. "I promise to tell you if you need to be worried. He was less vocal after the last training session."

"How did you convince Asgore to let you stay with Frisk?" Sans asked.

Flowey leaned around to look at Sans. "I didn't have too. Assassination attempt number three did that one for me. Humans know that there are royal children, but we're kept far from the public eye. Snowdin is a long way from New Home in the Underground."

"It helps that humans have assumed we're all monsters," Chara added. "And there would be Frisk."

This world's Frisk was a young man, properly dressed for the Victorian era in brown and white. He caught sight of us and headed in our direction.

"Ah, Sans! I see you've returned with..." He looked at me and I gave him my best I-just-might-eat-you smile. "Your friends." He instantly smiled at Frisk and caught up her hand, bringing it to his lips for a kiss. "A pleasure to meet you."

Chara was quick on the menace. "Don't touch her."

He dropped Frisk's hand and stepped back. "I apologize."

She smiled sheepishly, waving her hands in apology. "It's fine! You're Jekyll Frisk, right?"

He flinched a little at the name but nodded.

"So you have something killing monsters by stealing their memories, correct? You thought it was a strange gorilla creature that one of the royal guard killed but the murders keep happening, right?"

"Yes."

"Where is the royal guardsman who killed the creature?"

"He's at Dr. Alphys Laboratory, guarding her while she examines the creature's corpse."

"Oh that's bad! Quick! To the lab!" She held out her arms for her Blaster, who leaped into them as Chara put his arm around her waist. They short cut away.

I smirked and held out a hand to Sans and Frisk. Sans grasped my radius and ulna while Frisk hesitated. I chuckled. "Oh come on, kid! You live in a world full of monsters. Are you really all that scared of a skeleton?"

"To be fair, you are a very intimidating skeleton." He placed his hand in mine.

"You should see Frisk's father," I said and short cut us to the lab. Frisk, Chara, and Flowey waited outside for us.

"Took you long enough," Chara huffed. "How do we kill this thing?"

"In the movie, they trapped it in the forward compartment of a train and dropped it off the side of a cliff to explode on the valley floor. So I'm guessing blunt force trauma without a host around for the alien entity to possess or trapping it in a containment unit of some sort." Frisk grabbed Chara's shoulder before he could go inside. "It can raise anyone it has killed as a zombie to attack us."

Chara looked over his shoulder at her. "I don't remember that part of the movie."

"That's because you fell asleep."

He grabbed the front of her black and red striped hoodie. "Come on, Sunshine."

"Careful! Papyrus knitted this one!"

We followed Chara into the Lab. The entire place was dark.

"Oh, this is bad," Frisk whispered. "This thing kills in the dark."

"On it," I said. My eye activated and I summoned a circle of bones to surround the room. A soft white blue glow settled over the Lab. The bodies of several lab assistants lay scattered on the floor, eyes white with blood dripping from them.

"Where's Alphys?" Sans asked.

Flowey pointed to the ceiling with a leaf. "If this Alphys is a vampire, then she's up there."

A massive vampire bat hung upside down from the ceiling. She watched us curiously.

"Hello, Dr. Alphys!" Jekyll Frisk called. "These are friends of Sans here. Do you happen to know where the guardsman who killed the creature is?"

The massive bat let go of her hold on the support beams of the ceiling and flipped over, wings wrapped around her. Her feet touched the ground and the wings fell away, becoming a white lab coat as Alphys stepped forward, a short blonde woman with a large pair of circular glasses on her face, wearing a very tidy, Gibson girl dress. Two neat little fans poked from her mouth. "Good evening, Frisk. The royal guardsman in question is currently trapped in Dr. Sans laboratory down stairs. I am not sure how he is fairing against it. It did quite a number on me." She looked over Frisk and Chara. "I could use a bite."

Chara gave Alphys a glare that would give Frisk's father a run for his money. "I don't feed mosquitoes. I squash them."

I'm not sure how Alphys became paler, but she stepped back real quick. She motioned to a door behind her. "The stairs are that way."

We headed down to the True Lab and found a brightly lit, overly mechanical, laboratory filled with machines, operating tables, and large tubes filled with all manner of people floating in a green liquid. Dr. Sans, a older gentleman with piercing blue eyes and rapidly graying hair, was scrubbing his hands at a sink. He was dressed just as dapper as Jekyll Frisk, though he lacked a coat and the white sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up under a dark vest.

His Frisk hurried over to him. "Dr. Sans! Are you all right?"

"*Quite, quite," he said. "*No need to shout."

"But the creature-"

"*Is completely under control, my dear boy. Now hand me a towel."

Jekyll Frisk grabbed a towel from the shelf next to him and handed it to Dr. Sans.

"Where is the creature, Doctor?" Sans asked.

"Incapacitated in tank number three. Though he was very uncooperative about going in. So long as the lights are on, he is in no condition to harm anyone." He looked over the rest of us with a thin, but somewhat pleased smile. "Introductions, please."

I took the initiative and offered my hand. "Sans Gaster. Call me Bones."

Dr. Sans shook my hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"You've already met Sans. This is Frisk, her Chara, and Flowey."

Dr. Sans shook their hands and in Flowey's case, leaf. "And which Frisk might you be?"

She smiled. "Frisk Lucida Gaster. A Fell Frisk."

"*I dare say, child. You are not A Fell Frisk. You are THE Fell Frisk. Even in back water timelines like mine, you are rather famous." He knelt down to get a better look at her Blaster. "*This right here is a thing of beauty! A full body Gaster Blaster is very difficult to create."

"Her name is Coco."

He patted the Coco on the head before standing. "*Until we figure out how to dispose of the alien intelligence inside the guardsman, how about some lunch?"

"I could go for a bite," Sans said.

"Excellent."

We followed Sans to the MTT Resort. The restaurant was filled with movie monsters eating with other 'actors,' each seeming to have taken a break from their 'roles.' Lunch was filled with stories of everyone's various adventures in time and space.

Sans cocked his head and pointed a fork at Flowey. "I know you can transform back into a goat monster. So why the Flower?"

Flowey looked up from where he sat on the table between Frisk and Chara. "Because I'm a full grown goat monster and it takes a lot to feed a full grown goat monster. It's easier to be a flower. Photosynthesis covers most of my daily caloric intake."

"When you say full grown, are you as tall as your dad?"

"He looks like a clone of Bone's Asriel, so yes," Chara said between bites.

Sans smiled. "Does that include being a bad ass warrior like him?"

I snorted at the memory of Asriel cracking me hard during training. "When have you ever seen my Asriel be a bad ass warrior?" I asked before taking a sip of hot sauce from a teacup. Straight up Tabasco.

"Last time your girl came by to surf, C showed Paps and I a hologram of Asriel and King Chara going at it on the training floor."

I looked over at the kids, who were suddenly very silent.

Sans noticed and pressed, "Well?"

"Az beat dad pretty soundly during the last training session," Chara admitted.

"And now we know why he's backed off on being vocal about his opinion," Sans smiled. He took a bite of his salad and chewed it thoughtfully. "It isn't a bad thing to assert your dominance, Asriel. You come from a Fell world. You occasionally have to beat your authority into people."

"I understand that. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

A rather lovely woman in a police uniform came to our table and whispered quietly to Dr. Sans.

He smiled and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "*Well, my dear, there's not much I can do at this point, I'm afraid."

She whispered again.

"*Oh. Well then." He wiped his hands on a towel and looked at Frisk. "*I need your help."

Frisk looked at the woman standing next to him. "Well, at your age, I suppose you do."

Chara's forehead landed on her shoulder as he worked to hold in his laughter, while Sans, Jekyll Frisk, Flowey, and I suddenly found the scenery very interesting.

Dr. Sans jaw dropped for a moment before he shook off the shock. "*With an autopsy!"

Frisk's smile widened, taking on an expression I've seen plenty of times on Dings' skull. "Oh that makes far more sense." She wiped the corners of her mouth before dislodging Chara to stand. "Is it another case of memories being wiped despite the alien intelligence being in containment?"

He offered her his arm. "*We'll see when we get a look at the brain."

She put her hand down for Flowey to climb up to her shoulder before taking the Doctor's arm. Coco stood and patted over to her.

Jekyll Frisk leaned across the table to me. "Am I missing something? Why would the Doctor ask such a delicate flower to help with an autopsy?"

Chara's eyes narrowed to gleaming red slits. "Because said 'delicate flower' happens to have experience with that sort of work." He stood and shouldered his bag. He smiled at Sans and I. "Coming along?"

Sans stood. "Wouldn't miss it for the world. Autopsy observation is one of my favorite parts of my job."

Jekyll Frisk looked taken aback. "And what exactly is your job?"

"Homeland Security. Secret Service specifically."

Frisk smiled. "What? You don't surf all day?"

"Oh that I could, Wahine. But I do like having a paycheck and Queen Toriel pays well."

We followed Dr. Sans to the New Home police precinct where the body of a young boy lay on a table.

Frisk sighed sadly on seeing it and quickly washed her hands, while Chara braided her hair. Pulling on a pair of gloves she leaned over the boy, pushing his hair back to look at his forehead.

"*See something interesting?" Sans asked as he pulled on his gloves.

"Yeah. Someone carved a star into his forehead with a knife after death." She carefully opened the boy's shirt and counted under her breath. "Thirty-two stab wounds delivered ritualistically."

"Does it match a film?" Chara asked.

"Yeah. It matches a death from 'Nothing But the Night.' It's about a group of orphanage trustees using a strange psychic ability to put their memories and personalities in children. Basically, an immortality pyramid scheme."

Dr. Sans watched her carefully. "*Is it related to our captive alien intelligence?"

Frisk shrugged. "The films were made by the same studio, but everything then, everything around here seems to be inspired by Hammer films."

"*Would that include me?"

Frisk rolled her eyes. "Well yeah. You're dead ringer for Peter Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein." She looked at him suddenly. "What makes you think they're related?"

"*Memory. The creature trapped in my laboratory feeds on memories while this boy was murdered over memories."

Frisk reached across the table and grabbed a hold of Dr. Sans' tie, pulling him to her. "There IS an anomaly here! What are you hiding?"

He extricated himself from her grasp and fixed his tie. "*Sometimes, memory is all we have of something. It needs to be protected and, sometimes, transferred."

"You intend to use the alien intelligence to suck up someone's memories and then put them in another body." She shook her head. "No. That's not right. This is too quick for you to have planned it. You only just found out about the boy." Her eyes narrowed in exactly the same way Dings' sockets did when he was angry. "You're too arrogant to have just relied on my opinion without examining the body." She stepped back. "You're the alien."

Chara grabbed her hoodie, pulling her behind him just as the lights went out. "Bones! Give us some light!"

I sent an array of bones around the room, lighting it. Dr. Sans was gone.

Jekyll Frisk grabbed a hold of my jacket. "What's going on?!"

I gently removed his hands from my jacket. "It looks like Dr. Sans was the latest victim of the alien."

Chara pulled out his phone and checked it, before looking at Frisk. "How do you feel?"

"I'm all right."

Jekyll Frisk pushed Chara aside, taking Frisk's hands in his. "This ruffian didn't harm you, did he?"

Chara grabbed the front of Jekyll Frisk's button down and lifted him in the air with one hand. "Listen, Romeo. There's only one person I'm going to let be all over Frisk like flowers on a bride and that's the flower currently sitting on her shoulder. Don't touch her again." Chara dropped him and he hit the floor in a heap.

"I apologize." He looked to Frisk. "I'm sorry. I just find you endlessly fascinating."

"It's because I'm you from a different reality. All Frisks tend to be all over each other when we meet." She sighed. "Please do as Chara asks. I make his job hard enough as it is."

"What is your job?"

Chara jerked a thumb at Frisk. "Protecting her."

"Come on," I began. "We need to track down Sans. How long until you'll need to rest?"

"About an hour," Frisk said.

I nodded. "Let's head back to the Lab first."

Chara put his arm around Frisk while Coco jumped into her arms. Sans and Jekyll Frisk grabbed my arm. We short cut back to the Lab. Besides the random people floating in green goo in the tubes, it was empty. We headed up the stairs to the ground level and ran smack dab into Alphys. The vampire woman seized Frisk, pulling her away from us and putting her fangs to her neck.

"I wouldn't move if I were you. I could kill you all if I wanted," vampire Alphys hissed. Only to have the hiss returned by Coco.

Chara glared. "Vampires are always "I could kill you if I wanted." Yeah? Really? So could another human being. So could a dog. So could a dedicated duck. You aren't special."

Alphys stood up straight, with a confused look on her face. "A dedicated duck is a really specific reference."

Flowey wrapped around Alphys en mass, throwing her to the ground before picking her up and throwing her into a near wall. He climbed back to Frisk's shoulder. "That would be because a duck monster killed him."

Chara nodded as he moved in front of Frisk, Coco in front of him.

Alphys picked herself off the floor, rolling her shoulders before standing tall.

"So are you in league with the alien intelligence? Or do you have some other game you're playing at?" I asked.

The vampire woman raised her arms and zombies crashed through the plaster of the walls to come after us. I sent a volley of bones through the zombies, trapping most in place, Sans cleaning up the rest. Alphys huffed and pointed at Chara, her eyes glowing a hypnotic red.

He smirked. "Oh please."

Alphys' arms dropped, completely nonplussed. "You know, if you're going to have the asshole smirk, you should at least be eating an apple to go along with it."

Chara shrugged. "I am hungry. Mind if I raid the fridge?"

She frowned deeply. "Honestly. How hard is it for you to just die like you're supposed too?"

"Why do you want us dead?" Frisk asked.

She suddenly looked sheepish. "Dr. Sans promised to help my lover if I got rid of you."

"Yeah. Dr. Sans is possessed by the alien intelligence. The promise is worthless," Chara said.

The vampire sank to her knees, hands covering her face. "No! No!"

"What's wrong with Undyne?" Frisk asked.

Alphys looked up at her. "How do you know her name?"

"Not important. What's wrong?"

"She's was turned into a horrible bog monster by a witch."

Sans' eyes gleamed red, smile big and mean. "Which witch?"

Chara snorted and was rewarded with a pinch from Frisk.

"The foul witch Toriel."

"Okay," Frisk said. "We'll help you fix Undyne and you help us find Dr. Sans."

Vampire Alphys stood. "I will not make such an agreement without a guarantee of your help."

"What constitutes a guarantee?"

"Your blood."

Chara put his hand on Frisk's shoulder. "Don't even think about it, Sunshine." He pulled out a knife and cut open his palm, holding it out. "Here."

Alphys took his hand and luridly licked the blood from his palm with a long tongue, while watching his face. Not getting the reaction she wanted, Alphys frowned and stepped back. "I expected a lie in the taste, but you do mean to help me. Very well. Dr. Sans is in the royal palace. Be wary. The devil Asgore is not to be trifled with."

Flowey wrapped Chara's hand in a bandage while he popped a piece of monster candy.

"Got it." Frisk blinked a few times. "We'll need to be quick with the next part."

We hurried to the palace and found guardsmen strewn about the floors, eyes white with blood dripping from them.

"Dr. Sans has been through here," Frisk said. She stomped the ground. A pattern of red spider webs glowed underneath her. The webs came up and wrapped around the dead. "That will keep them from getting up if the alien tries to summon them."

"Learn that one from Muffett, huh?" I asked.

She smiled. "It took me forever to get it right."

Coco hissed, back arched.

Chara grabbed Frisk's hand, pulling her close as the lights went out. Before I could launch a volley of bones to light the room, Flowey's vines wrapped around me, pulling us all to the ceiling and hiding us in a dark corner. I blacked out my eye and covered Coco's eyes with my jacket. Dr. Sans walked into the room, looking around for us furiously.

"Come out, my dear! A genius like you cannot let your memories go to waste in such a weak body. I promise to take good care of them."

Jekyll Frisk struggled out of the vines, dropping to the floor. "No! I won't allow it!"

Dr. Sans grabbed Jekyll Frisk, eyes glowing a bright, pupil-less red. He screamed, struggling against the erasure of his mind. He fell to the ground in a heap.

And we were all standing in the haunted forest outside of Snowdin.

"Well. That's one way to handle a problem," Chara huffed. "But wow is it disorienting."

"You get used to other Frisks accessing their saves on timeline after a few times." I pulled out my phone and checked the time. "We're back far enough that I think we can get to the alien before it gets to Dr. Sans." I looked at Frisk, circles were forming under her eyes. "Let me handle the short cut."

She nodded and held Coco while I short cut us to the Lab. The infected guardsman was about to kill the lights. I sent a volley of bones at him, trapping him against the wall while Sans wrapped a blindfold over his eyes.

The vampire Alphys watched us, stunned. "Who are you and what are you doing?"

"The gorilla on the table was only a host for the actual monster. It's in the guardsman!" Frisk yelled.

The vampire stepped back and out of the way, quickly motioning for the other guards to stay back.

"Now what do we do with it?" Chara asked. "If we kill the guardsman, their are plenty of other people around to host the parasite."

"It's natural to this timeline," Frisk said. "But I doubt it belongs right here, right now." She pulled out her phone. "Fase? We have the anomaly under containment. It belongs on timeline, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong in this part of the timeline. Can you figure out where it goes and put it back?" She fell silent, listening. She nodded. "Yes. Okay." She hung up.

The guardsman stuck to the wall passed out, body limp.

Frisk smiled. "He should wake up just fine soon." She looked at Alphys. "You don't remember it, but I promised to help you save Undyne."

Vampire Alphys raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What did I tell you?"

"That she was turned into a bog monster by Toriel. Where is Undyne now?"

Alphys laughed loud and long.

"Undyne always was a bog monster, right?" Chara snarled. "I can't believe I let you drink my blood over such an obvious trick."

"Why aren't you lying about it now," Sans asked.

"She remembers things between resets," I said.

Alphys smiled, fangs glistening. "Of course! And I remember that you are from another reality. I am rather interested..." She licked a fang. "In visiting."

This time, she was ready. Before Sans or I could throw a volley, we were seized from behind by the zombies hidden in the walls. Frisk's left eye began to glow a bright red. A ring of bones floated in a circle behind her like red halo.

"Let go of my friends!" Frisk sent half the bones behind her in a volley, timed with Coco's blast. Alphys dodged her way through it and Frisk's sclera turned black, pupils like dancing red flames in her eyes.

Chara wrapped one arm around her waist and one around her shoulders, putting his hand over her mouth. "Calm down," he whispered. "Let Az and I handle it."

Her eyes closed and she nodded.

Chara looked up and his red eyes began to glow. He reached back, grabbing one of Frisk's bones out of the air. "Guess what?" The red bone became a sword in his hand. "Frisk's not the only one who knows magic."

Flowey jumped from her shoulder and a full grown Asriel Dreemurr landed in front of her, Chaos Saber in hand. Alphys squeaked and jumped into the air, turning into a bat before flying out an open window. The zombies holding Sans and I were back to their lifeless state.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," Asriel said. His Chaos Saber disappeared from his hand and he turned to Frisk. "You are long passed ready for your nap."

She nodded and hugged him, her head only reaching mid-chest on him. There was a soft and very pleased smile on his face as one claw gently ran through her hair.

Sans looked over the goat prince appreciatively. "How about that? You do look like Bone's Asriel. Though you lack the tattoos."

Asriel looked down at his chest and shrugged. "Those come just before I assume the throne."

"And you've figured out transforming with clothing," Chara teased.

Asriel threw his hands in the air. "Oh come on! It was just the one time!"

"No worries, Bro. Frisk seemed to like it just fine."

Frisk's cheeks turned bright pink.

Sans laughed. "Shall we go home, then?"

Frisk turned her head to look at him. "I've met other Swap Fell Sans-es before, but you are very different from your counter parts. Why is that? Is it the island home? The slow pace of life there?"

Sans smiled. "Yeah. My variation of Sans tends to be a bunch of little bitches. But, nah. It's way deeper than that. Just like there's an essential void in the very being of a Fell Sans, there's an essential fear in a Fell Papyrus that motivates our every action. They all fear losing their brother. So being swapped, I'm the one with the fear. But the others, they rarely ever see that fear realized. So they keep acting on it, often to the complete detriment of the one they fear losing."

He sighed. "I saw it happen. As the disease rotted away my flesh, I saw my brother just go. He was physically there, but mentally? Spiritually? He'd completely checked out."

He took her hand and pulled her toward him. "So, I know what it's like to have my worst fears realized. To truly lose the one thing I cared about. And to make it even worse? He was still physically there. And I couldn't do anything to get him back. So I guess that's why I'm different. It's hard to fear something I've long had to live with. And it's hard to fear when my heart is filled with so much love for the person who brought my brother back."

Sans rubbed his nose against hers. "Be safe getting home, Wahine." He stepped back and disappeared.

Asriel put his hand on Frisk's shoulder and transformed back into Flowey.

Chara picked up Coco and put his arm around Frisk. "We're ready."

I dropped them in their timeline before heading back to mine. The blue lines in the void were starting to disappear, cut as the new protections came online. I landed in the hallway outside Frisk's apartment. The door to Cross' was open and I could hear my Sunflower talking inside.

"*So what anime are we watching?" D asked.

"Inu-yasha. It's one of my favorites."

"Of course it is," Cross said as I walked in.

"Come again?"

"It's about a girl who falls down a hole in the ground, ends up in a magical place, and falls in love with a monster."

Frisk's jaw dropped and D laughed.

"STOP LAUGHING, JERK."

Frisk swatted Papyrus' arm. "Your brother is not a jerk! He's a sweetheart!"

Cross snorted. "Well, Sans. Your dream has come true. Two women are fighting over you."

Papyrus turned and glared.

"Oh wow," Frisk began, "You better start running."

"Yoink!" Cross was out the door like a shot, Papyrus running after him.

D chuckled. "It's strange. I always wondered what he would be like without Chara plaguing him. I didn't imagine that'd he'd be so much like you."

"Hey!"


	10. Ep 10 - A Normal Day at Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Core Issues: Season Two  
> by Nicolle
> 
> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale. Underfell is a community project. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> 1\. Here it is Ladies and Gents! The beginning of the end!   
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.   
> 3\. Our narrator for this episode is Army!Frisk.

Ep. 10 - A Normal Day at Home (To avoid confusion right out, our narrator for this episode is Army!Frisk.)

My Frisk from the colony ship Delta, her eyes blue and white, sat next to me and our exemplar toting Frisk at the end of the dock. Our feet dangled in the cool water, the occasional trout swimming far below. The sky was a bright blue between puffy white clouds and the light that filtered down to the lake made the water sparkle like diamonds.

"Thank you for having me. It's nice to live in a good memory for a while." Frisk took my hand, eyes like rainbows.

"You're welcome anytime," I said, putting my head on her shoulder.

"Are you sure that a fish won't bite my toes?" the teen asked. She leaned forward over the edge, resting her arms on her knees to watch the fish swim by. Her long hair slid forward over her shoulders. 

I smiled. "Mostly."

Frisk sat up and pouted at me for a moment before her shoulders dropped. She pushed her hair back behind her shoulders. "Fase says I'm a copy of another Frisk. That I don't belong to any timeline. So what's going to happen to me? "

I sat up and put a hand on her shoulder. "You'll stay here with us."

"Just like that?" Her expression soured. "Are you that used to taking in strays at the Foundation?"

My older double leaned back to look at the teen, eyes blue green. "You're hardly a stray. Would you rather be somewhere else?"

Frisk looked out over the lake, eyes reflecting the glittering surface. "No. It's really nice here. Frisk and Sans seem to be really happy to have me around. Even when I'm causing trouble, no one ever kicks me out or tells me that I'm not welcome." She ducked her head. "I guess I've just been waiting for someone to tell me that it's time to leave."

I felt a familiar tingle and looked behind me at the same time as my older double. Blue stood at the other end of the dock, hands in his pockets, pink slippers covering his boney feet, smiling at us. 

"Everyone treats me like I belong with all the Frisks and I guess I'm just waiting to feel like I do."

Blue winked at me with his left eye and disappeared. 

I pulled my feet from the water and stood to put on my sandals. "Come on. Lunch is ready by now at the cabin."

The teen pulled her feet out of the water and shoved them in her shoes. As we walked up the path, we came across a large tree branch.

Frisk bent over, trying to lift it. It didn't budge. "Woah. That wasn't here when we came down! Good thing it didn't hit us. I'd need to summon Crow to lift it."

We walked passed the branch and heard a resounding crack. The teen turned and gasped, running back to the broken branch. Frisk and I ducked behind a tree, stifling giggles behind our hands.

"Hey Frisk! Check it out! It's smashed to pieces! Frisk...?"

The teen looked around and, confused, went back up the trail.

"Frisk?"

We waited as she came to a stop near our hiding spot. Frisk wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly, the memory of the rush of that first meeting rolling over both of us.

"*Human. Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand."

Frisk turned slowly and put her hand in Blue's, only to jump at the whoopee cushion deflating in her hand.

"*heheh... the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny."

She giggled, hiding her mouth behind her hands. "It's an awful joke!"

Blue put an arm around her shoulders. "*feel a little more like you belong, kiddo?"

Frisk smiled. "Yeah!" She frowned. "Why?" She blinked. "Which Sans are you?"

"*the original." He winked at her with his left eye. "*i'm sans classic."

The teen started hopping up and down, excited. "Does that mean the original Frisk is here too?"

Sans nodded and drew out his soul, in his white upside down heart rested a bright red one. "*their napping right now. but they'll want to talk to you later."

"Wow." She reached out and touched the soul within a soul and pulled back quickly. "Woah."

The souls disappeared and he held out his arm. "*ready for some hot dogs?"

She took his arm. "Yeah!"

They started back up the path and Frisk and I fell in behind them, listening to the teen chatter at Blue full speed. We came out of the tree line and found two more picnic tables set up with a whole lot of Frisks, the occasional Chara, and several Floweys talking it up while their various skelebros chatted away. 

Agent Helvetica... No. G. He asked me to call him G. 

His Frisk sat with Cross. Iris' Frisk and Red's little sister were talking about Coco the Gaster Blaster. Monster Frisk sat on the table petting Coco. Black's Frisk chatted away with Vivi and Ravie's mother, who cuddled baby Abigail in her arms. White's full grown diplomat of a brother caught sight of us and waved us over.

When I sat down next to him and the food started passing around, a hush came over us. It was hard not to notice the multiple eye sockets, and in some cases actual eyes, were watching us top our hot dogs. 

"Here they go again," White's Frisk grumbled.

"I was told this would happen, but seriously? Are they that insecure?" My older double whispered, eyes yellow green.

"It's not insecurity," Monster Frisk said. "It's about loyalty." She smiled, the devilish little grin that every Fell Frisk eventually developed curving her lips. "Ketchup please!"

Her Papyrus groaned, shoulders drooping while her Sans laughed.

Cross looked at D. "I am not putting white sauce on a hot dog. It is not happening."

Red's little sister picked up a bottle of ketchup.

"*oh come on, sweetheart!"

She looked at her brother as she slathered the hot dog in ketchup. "Thirty-two times, Sans. Thirty-two times."

Vivi and Ravie's mother laughed. "Apply water directly to the burn, Red."

Her Sans looked at Red. "Are you going to flip off my wife?"

"*nope. but i was thinking about it." Those red glints looked over at his Chara. "*what's the matter, prick? no follow up?"

Chara looked up from his video game. "Huh? Oh yeah. Someone pass me the liquid cheese."

White laughed maniacally while Blue patted Red on the shoulder and lunch began in earnest. 

"*So what's on the agenda today?" Iris asked between sips of spicy mustard.

"After lunch, we hit the Ember Realm Amusement Park in New Home," Bones said. 

Teen Frisk practically jumped in her seat. "They just added a new roller coaster called Impulse! I cannot wait!" 

"*do you think they can handle this many frisks?" Red asked.

"This many Frisks aren't a problem," White said. He put his hands on the heads of Iris' and G's Frisks. "These two are a problem."

Iris' Frisk just shrugged while she ate her hot dog, her Flowey nodding. 

G's Frisk knocked White's hand away. "Hey! I am not a problem!" He looked at Cross. "Back me up here."

Cross chuckled. "The only thing I've got to help you is that I won the award for Most Problematic Frisk."

"What is it with Gaster Sans-es having such problematic Frisks?" My surfer Papyrus smiled at me when he said it, a red glint to his eyes.

I pointed at him. "That's right. Laugh it up! Next time I come by, I'm dropping in on your wave and tossing you in the soup."

His Sans elbowed him. "I'll get mom to record your wipe out for us."

Papyrus eyed his brother. "And who said I'd let her do that to me?"

Sans looked between the two of us. "My money's on Frisk."

"Are you saying that she's a better surfer than I am?"

"Oh no! Never!" A red gleam hit his eyes. "I'm saying you'd just let her toss you in the soup."

Fell Frisk practically jumped up in her seat, pink and blue hair bouncing. "Surf off! Surf off!"

"Oh Wahine! Don't get them started. I don't think I could take it if my poor brother smacked himself off the reef again."

Papyrus rolled his eyes.

"Careful now, Red. Or Papyrus will steal your bestie," White teased.

Red snorted. "*i ain't worried about him." His eye sockets narrowed at Cross. "*i am way more concerned about how much time she's been spending with the piss ant."

Cross leaned back to look at him. "Suck it, Red."

Red put his boney hands on my shoulders. "*what do you see in him, sugar blossom?"

I patted his hand and gave him a bottle of mustard. "Me. It's why you like him so much."

Cross and Red stared each other down for a moment before flipping each other the bird.

Iris' Frisk reached over and tugged on Fell Frisk's hair. "Why is your hair every color of the rainbow? Every time I see you it's a different color!"

Cross put his fork down. "You know, I have always wondered about that. What is it with your hair?"

"Mettaton colors her hair every other week on his day time talk show," Chara answered. Frisk nodded, pink and blue waves bobbing.

"How is your hair not falling out?" My older double asked.

"Magic," Frisk said. 

Several eye sockets turned to Red and he shrugged. "*don't look at me. i honestly haven't figured out how she altered muffett's purple magic to do it."

"So what's the big occasion? Why is everyone here when most of us were on lock down?" White's brother asked. 

Fell Frisk held out her hand for a napkin. "Since the new firewalls are now in place, Fase was able to construct a new prison for the C.H.A.R.A. virus. It's only a matter of time before it's trapped again."

Her Flowey handed her a napkin. "So we're all taking a break and this world's Asriel is nice enough to host us all for some fun."

"*as soon as everyone's done eating, we'll clean up, and head underground," Blue said. 

With that, the younger Frisks finished their plates as fast they could. Clean up was a breeze with so many people on hand, and we were at Ember Realm's gate in the blink of an eye. 

"Wow! It's like being at the fair at night!" Monster Frisk squealed. She hugged her Papyrus tightly around the neck. "Swings first! Swings first!" He laughed and headed off in the direction of the Italian Trapeze, his brother following behind at a leisurely pace. 

The youngest Frisks grabbed a hold of Cross, dragging him deep into the park. My older double smiled, eyes gold and flashing as they reflected the bright lights, and followed the kids, camera in hand. Red and Blue found a nice bench and proceeded to nap while White and Iris hit the arcade, and, very likely, the newest zombie shooter on the big screen.

As everyone split up, Bones took my hand in his. And I was blushing like an idiot. Again.

Why? 

I married this man. We'd seen each other for years before that. We'd been trying for months to conceive. Why did I suddenly turn red like a teen with a crush when he held my hand? Or when he smirked at me?

His smirk grew when he looked down at my face. Great. Just great. 

"Ready?" His uncanny voice rushed over skin and I shivered. Bones pulled me against him, putting his arm around my shoulders, and trailing his boney fingers over the line of sunflowers tattooed down the inside of my arm. He walked me in the direction of the Haunted Mansion. No matter how long the line was, we always went on the Haunted Mansion first when we came to Ember. It was the first ride Bones took me on the first time he brought me here. 

And it marked the first time he'd kissed me.

I was as red as a tomato. I had to be. I knew what would happen. The tiny ride car would swing sharply away from the truck scare and I would jump like I always did. I'd grab a hold of his jacket and he'd catch hold of my chin, claiming my mouth as we went through the room with glowing skulls floating all around us, recapturing that first time.

Dogamy and Dogaressa ran over to us, pulling us from the line. 

"Sans! Puppy! Undyne needs you both. She's waiting for you outside King Asgore's former home."

Bones put his arm around my waist to short cut us away. Before the world swirled dark, I saw Cross and Red heading toward us. Bones and I stepped into the leaf strewn yard of the old house. Undyne stood there with Asriel, who, despite being in his purple 'I'm not working today' hoodie and his 'I don't care if I'm the king of all monsters' blue jeans, looked like an almighty ruler. Lily and James stood with them.

Seeing him like this was always strange for me no matter how many times I'd seen him step into his role as ruler of all monsters. The first time I laid eyes on him was after I'd woken up from the surgery that'd saved my life and made C a permanent part of it. I don't remember being shocked or scared. I only remember reaching out to touch his long hair and thinking how strong and beautiful he looked. I'd felt safe in a way I hadn't since dad died. 

Though I was not technically one of his subjects despite formally being his sister, the urge to kneel to his authority was overwhelming. I might argue with him, but I was never able to ever truly disobey an order if he gave me one. I'd wondered for a long time if it was just part of my training. That I'd accepted him as my commanding officer. But one incident had wiped that notion away. Once, in a moment of extreme stress, he'd barked for silence from a group of human reporters on a tour of the Foundation. All of them fell silent and knelt.

Red and Cross appeared behind us as C burst to life on my shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Bones asked.

Undyne handed me a briefcase. "Lily and James were out having lunch and just happened to say the correct code phrase to receive this briefcase. Inside are instructions for a sleeper cell to cause a problem at Ember Realm tonight when Ambassador Susan Warner comes through on a tour with Asgore."

Lily sighed. "All I did was ask for a bottle of hot sauce to go with my pizza." She pointed at Bones. "You started me on that, by the way." He smiled and shrugged.

I opened the case and started digging. "These are the instructions for a cell making the distraction that will cause enough disarray for humans disguised as monsters to kill the Ambassador, causing a serious international incident. Looks like several cells working together. Only two are on for the actual assassination. The others are pulling off a flash mob to cover the assassins."

I pulled out my phone and dialed.

"*who are you calling, sugar plum?"

Cross frowned. "Church just dialed. She didn't use the phone's address book. That means she's calling her former command."

Undyne and Red exchanged worried glances, while Asriel merely watched.

I waited for the pick up. Dead silence followed it. "A. Nine. Eight. Six. Forty-Two. S. O. P. V." There was a click and the line transferred. The phone on the other end was picked up on the first ring.

"Frisk Emily Church! I never thought I'd ever hear your voice again. Whatcha need, darlin'?"

I simultaneously relaxed and stood at attention. Ah. Old habits. "Hear my voice again? Sir, you did attend my wedding."

"You know what I mean, Church."

I sighed. "Yes. Yes I do. We have evidence of an assassination attempt against Ambassador Warner in four hours while she's touring the Underground."

"Can the Foundation handle it or would you like assistance?"

"As a matter of fact, we just happen to have a lot of agents on hand for a retreat. We can handle it. I just need the media presence to be edited to the appropriate people and for someone to clean up the sleeper cell that was supposed to get the information we have."

"I can do that. What's your plan?"

I looked at Asriel and he nodded, giving me authority. "Bait and switch. She's supposed to tour with King Asgore. We'll have an agent stand in for the Ambassador with Asgore, while she tours the Underground with King Asriel instead." I picked up a paper in the file and stared at it. I bit my tongue to keep from cursing in front of my former commanding officer. "Looks like a member of her staff is part of the plot. We'll need to separate him so he can't tip off the conspirators."

"I will handle the Ambassador being in the right place at the right time for you. Call in on the secondary number if you need me again."

"Yes, Sir."

He chuckled. "We."

"Sir?"

"Another time, Church. You have a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time." He hung up. 

I noticed that Cross was looking at me with an anticipatory smile while Bones waited patiently for the plan. G, Iris, and White appeared behind them, while several Foundation agents filed in. Undyne quickly briefed them on the situation.

Asriel took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "The assassination attempt will happen in Ember Realm near the grand stand. I have Agent Niagra already getting the area ready for full neutralization if necessary. The plan is to find the conspirators before they even get to that point. The information we have indicates that the conspirators are all human who will disguise themselves as monsters. We'll split everyone into teams to look for the conspirators. It's a week day so there aren't as many tourists around and the humans here will be limited to visitors and those working in the Underground. Do not assume that just because they work here, that they aren't part of the plot. Check everyone." 

Asriel took the paper with the identity of the mole and looked at it. "The Ambassador will arrive here in two hours. When that happens, the mole will be separated from the entourage. When the group comes through the Golden Hall, Agent Aster will grab him and take him to holding at the Foundation." He smiled. "I've already notified our surfer Sans and he'll take it from there."

There was an audible hiss from several of the agents.

Undyne picked up the instructions. "White and G. You two have New Home proper. Cross and Red. You both have the walk ways around New Home. Iris and Frisk. I want you both to check the Core. If anyone thinks they have a bead on something, call me to handle breaking and entering." 

Asriel put his hand on my shoulder. "You will be our decoy."

I nodded. 

"We will switch the Ambassador and her entourage with you and a team of agents after the mole has been removed," Asriel said. "Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Good." Asriel turned to Bones. "Agent Aster, once the mole is secured, return to help me."

Bones nodded. 

"Then let's get a move on," Undyne said. "I will ring you when we're ready to put you under make up, Frisk." She started directing the remaining agents.

Iris and I headed for the Core. 

"*Any chance that we might be wild goose chasing all the way over here?"

"Undyne wouldn't have sent us over here, if she didn't think we might find something."

Iris' red eyes flickered in her skull. "*How has Bones been doing? I mean..." She huffed. "*I didn't mean to put him through all that."

"He's fine, Sans. We aren't strangers to missions that go south hard and fast. How's the soul he bonded with?"

"*Constantly asking when the skeleton monster they bonded with will come back. The new royal scientist created a vessel for it to stay in and it lives with us. For obvious reasons, it likes to be near Daisy."

"How are things going with Papyrus?"

She smiled, eyes sockets closed in ecstasy of memory. "*Ah fuck! Why does he have to be on a different timeline?" She looked at me a little sheepishly, rubbing the back of her skull. "*Besides the existential distance? Great!"

We split up to check different areas in the Core. Everything was quiet and empty. We met at the elevator.

"*It looks like the Core is clear."

I shook my head. "There's still down. We need to check the basement levels. How are you affected by a Gaster's presence?"

"*Not at all. If the 'Good Doctor' in my head doesn't have a reason to assert himself, I don't even notice that he's there. Bones gets hit hard with it, huh?"

I nodded as we got in the elevator. "Here he will become Gaster. Though he is aware that he is not himself anymore." 

"*Must be interesting for you."

I looked at my feet for a second. "It's still him."

The elevator let us out at the basement level and we checked each of the rooms in turn. I opened the door to Wing Dings' office and found a stash of clothing, make up, and masks in front of the desk. Nothing else in the office was touched. 

Iris pulled out her phone. "*It's Iris. We found where the conspirators are stashing their stuff. Gaster's old office in the Core basement."

I looked over at the desk. A folder with papers sticking out of it sat on the blotter. I flipped it open and looked. Instead of plans for the assassination, I found a set of letters. 

Iris hung up the phone. "*What did you find?"

"Bones writing back and forth to himself. Sans and Wing Dings."

Iris leaned over my shoulder. "*What language is this?" 

I switched to speaking in it. "The symbol language we understand when Gaster speaks it, but can't read."

Iris' eyes turned white for a moment and back to red. She shook her skull. "*Take them with you to keep them safe. Red and Cross are on their way here. They're just going to wait for the conspirators and doing that might mess up Bones' work. Undyne needs you for make up."

I picked up the file and paused, dropping it back to the desk for a moment. I went over to the door to the lab and opened it to peek inside. Years of training kicked in and I dropped to a crouch, causing the person looking to bash me over the head to fall. I pushed up quick, reversing my attacker's momentum and slammed him into the door jamb. Iris' power came up and I froze, letting the bones go around me to pin the guy to the wall through his clothing. 

C cursed in my head as a woman grabbed me from behind and spun me around. I lost my footing and crashed into the examination table. Iris sent a ring of red bones around her and the woman sank to knees, whimpering. Iris smirked. "*Yeah. No. I'm not an idiot. Just be happy I want you in one piece."

Another man came at Iris, swinging. She weaved around both punches, both boney arms coming up. He grabbed her shoulder and she swung on him, cracking him in the head. He stumbled and she brought both fists down on his upper back, sending him to the floor. 

C's voice wrapped around my inner ear. "Adult Female, hidden on the left. Armed and knows what she's doing."

The woman appeared from behind a cabinet and with a gun pointed at me. I put up my hands and let her walk close. 

The gun's safety was engaged.

I grabbed her arm, pulling her toward me and forward, keeping the gun aimed at the floor. I spun, elbowing her in the face, and catching her squarely on the nose. She dropped the gun and tried to kick me. I grabbed her leg and lifted her up, before slamming her into the ground, using my own body to add to the force of impact. She lay there, dazed, while I bound her wrists.

I picked myself up and looked around the lab. It was a mess. "Bones is going to be fifty shades of angry when he sees this," I groaned.

Iris eyes turned white. "*I'M sURe tHaT aLL YOu'Ll nEEd tO Do is BeNd oVEr thE DEsk tO cOOl HiM ofF."

Iris shook her head, eyes turning red again. "*You dirty old fucker! Stop that!" She sighed. "*I honestly don't know which is worse, him taking me over or how he wasn't joking when he said that."

"*joking when who said what?" Red asked as he came in the door. He drew in a breath with a hiss. "*fuck. bones is going to be pissed."

Cross came in the door and flinched at the mess in the lab. He looked at our four captives. "Well. It's a good thing that... Wait. No. It's not a good thing we're taking you four elsewhere. The guy this lab belongs to is WAY nicer than the guy who gets to interrogate you."

Red grabbed the man stuck to the wall and pulled him off the bones, ripping his clothing. He reached through the bars of the cage to grasp the woman's collar and short cut away with both. He reappeared a minute later and short cut away with the remaining two. 

Cross looked me over. "You good?"

"Yeah."

Red reappeared. "*i'm to get you to undyne asap. anything else you need, sugar blossom?"

"Yeah. Iris? Would you drop the folder we found on my kitchen table?"

She nodded and headed back into the office. 

Red put his arm around me and short cut us back to Undyne. He winked at me before disappearing again. 

"Ready for make up?" Undyne asked. 

I nodded and the make up artist from Undyne's under cover unit turned me into Susan Warner. I pulled on a suit that matched the Ambassador's, covering my holster with the suit coat as Asriel came into the room, wearing his royal attire. I smiled and stood on tip toe to smooth the shoulders of his cape. 

"How long until the Ambassador shows?" I asked.

"She's here now. The mole is already in custody. The reporters who are here are the same ones who are cleared for my press conferences." Asriel smiled. "Dad's ready when you are."

I looked at Undyne. "Weapons please."

Undyne handed me my favorites from the armory. I checked each one before holstering and stood still for the make up artist to adjust my clothing and hair one last time. I headed out to where Asgore waited with Warner.

The Ambassador looked me over. "This is phenomenal!" She looked me in the eyes. "Are you perfectly fine doing this?"

"Yes, ma'am. I had far more complicated assignments during the Ironbark War."

She nodded and turned to Asriel. "Will we be safe during the tour?" 

Asriel nodded and offered her his arm. "We will start the tour on the other end of the Underground. By the time we get back to New Home, the situation will be resolved." As he led the Ambassador away, I caught sight of Bones. He winked at me before following Asriel.

I smiled at Asgore. "How's my favorite goat dad?"

He smiled warmly and offered me his arm. "Sad that, yet again, our time together is spent working."

"And you're supposed to be retired."

I took his arm as a group of agents fell in with us, each made to look like the original entourage, Undyne taking a place next to me. "Have our guests been moved from the park?"

She nodded. "With the exception of the older version of you and Red's Chara, yes. I have them both in sniper positions with Larry." She smiled big. "Though no one is happy with their fun being cut short!"

"I suppose not. Lead on, Your Highness."

Asgore lead me through New Home to Ember Realm on the original tour route, repeating a long rehearsed speech. Somewhere in my head, C pulled open some lock, and everything felt very warm, very present. A grid laid over my vision, with details pointed out about each building and person we passed. Just as we came to the grand stand, a group of people who looked to be missing a few members converged on the open area. They started dancing to a choreographed routine and I pretended to be enjoying it while letting C scan the crowd.

C's voice wrapped around my inner ear, "Two in the middle are armed. One with a gun and one with a knife. They aren't masked so they are likely the back up for the cell we found in the lab."

I leaned into Undyne to point out the marks and she nodded.

The group turned en masse and rushed us. Undyne stepped to protect Asgore while I readied for the assassins. James and Lily stepped in front of me, both taking two unarmed assailants to task, quickly neutralizing them, but the distraction worked.

The assassin with the gun pulled it as he got close. I grabbed his wrist, forcing him to point the gun up and away from everyone. He was hit by three foam core bullets, locking his arms and legs in place. I pulled the gun from his hand and tossed it to James as the assassin hit the ground.

"Second attacker at six."

I ducked the knife swing of the second man and swept his legs out from under him. Two foam core shots locked him to the ground.

"All other potential hostiles have chosen to run," C said.

Lily pulled me back among the agents and rushed me out of the area as the royal guard corralled everyone. Back in the New Home police precinct, I washed off the make up and pulled my hair out of the tight bun on my head. A gentle hand began brushing my hair and I caught sight of my older self, eyes red green. 

"You're a great shot," I said.

She smiled, eyes purple blue, and kept brushing my hair. "Well, I am, but that was all Chara. He was the only one with clear shots. Larry? That's Agent Niagra's name right?"

I nodded.

"Larry was very impressed with Chara's skill. He said that Red should worry less about his little sister. That she's in good hands."

"She is. But Red's never going to stop worrying about her. Chara's a jerk, but find me a good Chara that isn't a jerk to start."

C burst to life on my shoulder. "Hey!"

"You're a jerk."

He shrugged. "I know. But I'm your jerk."

I kicked off the high heels. "How is clean up?"

"Done. Everyone involved has been detained and the park employees have everything back in order. Asriel and Ambassador Warner will be there in a few minutes. She seems to have enjoyed herself."

"Of course she has. Asriel knows what he's doing and even if he didn't, his personal charisma can carry him through most things."

C cocked his holographic head to the side, as if listening to an unheard voice. "Asriel would like you to be ready to meet the Ambassador again in ten, in the uniform Undyne's bringing."

Frisk smiled. "Let me get you ready."

I relaxed and let her put my hair and make up back in order. Undyne came by with a change of clothes for me. Standing in front of the mirror, I realized the black dress uniform I'd been handed was one I hadn't worn in a very long time. I touched the green snake embroidered on the shoulder. There was no way Undyne could have gotten her hands on this uniform. I'd locked mine away just after discharge. It wasn't Cross' uniform. I looked at the embroidered name over my left breast. 'GASTER.'

I pulled out my phone and saw a text from the second number: 'Keep doing us proud, Frisk.'

I put my phone away and headed out to meet Asriel and Ambassador Warner. The Ambassador's entourage milled about the buffet set up by Muffett's Sweet Shop, leaving my brother and Warner to wait for me. Asriel's face didn't change when he saw me but the Ambassador blanched. 

"You're a Viper!"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And here I was worried about you. I should have been more concerned for my assassins!" She took my hands. "Thank you. I truly appreciate your assistance."

"You're welcome, ma'am."

She leaned in. "When I asked Agent Aster about his wedding ring, he said that you were his wife."

"I am."

"May I ask a very personal question?"

"Yes, but I reserve the right to choose against answering."

She nodded. "He's a skeleton, correct? How do you two... have children?" 

Asriel snorted as I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing in her face. 

I took a breath and smiled. "Monsters reproduce by combining their souls. The magic of the act creates a new soul which inhabits the body of the mother and is birthed an appropriate amount of time later depending on the type of monster. The process works the same with humans but just like a typical human couple trying to conceive, it can take several tries before success."

I leaned in and whispered, "But the answer to the question you're actually trying to ask is 'magic.'"

"Magic?"

"Magic."

The obvious thought occurred to her. "Oh my." She suddenly remembered that Asriel was standing next to her. "Oh my goodness! Your Majesty, I apologize!"

"There's no need to apologize Ms. Warner. It's perfectly fine to be curious about such things." He gestured toward the buffet. "Please enjoy the catering." When she turned away, Asriel put his arm around my shoulders. "I had a thought and one that doesn't make me happy to have you so close to danger in today's events."

I put my arm around my brother. "What thought?"

"That maybe the reason you and Bones have yet to successfully combine souls is because you're already pregnant."

I looked up at his snout. "Go on."

"I know that going on a mission means that the two of you get some prime alone time. And on a different timeline, different rules regarding reproduction come into play. I'm not sure how much our timeline's rules govern you in other places."

I thought about that. "I haven't had any of the classic symptoms. And I'm sure C would notice."

C appeared on my shoulder. "Not necessarily. I'm honestly not sure what I'd be looking for in that case." He transferred to Asriel, sitting on our brother's shoulder.

"I still wonder. I'll do a blood test when we get home." He hugged me against him with the arm around my shoulders. "Bones is outside. Why don't you two head back over to the park? Every one else is over there again and I'm pretty sure the catering is ready at the pavilion I reserved." 

"Ooooh. What are you treating us too?"

"Burrito buffet."

I reached up and grabbed a lock of his hair to pull him down to kiss his cheek. "See you later, Asriel."

He smiled and pushed me toward the door. 

Bones was waiting in the hallway. He took my hand, ever present smirk in place. "Hey, Sunflower." He touched the name embroidered on the uniform before pulling me along. "Does it feel weird to wear the uniform again and so publicly?"

"I feel like I'm being used to make a statement."

Bones nodded. "You are, but it's a good one for monsters." He looked down at me. "Whatcha hiding, Frisk?"

I smiled. "You're getting to be really good at reading me, but I'm not hiding. Just trying to figure out how to tell you."

He pulled me closer as we walked back to the Haunted Mansion and it's perpetually long line. "Just tell me."

"Your lab in the Core is a complete mess. The assassins were using it as a home base."

He groaned. "Great." He sighed. "What else?"

"I found the folder of letters you and Dings have been writing back and forth to each other." I looked up at him. "What do they say?"

Bones shrugged. "A lot of things. Interesting stuff in the journals I've read. News about Vivi and Ravie, or Paps. Experiments he's performed while I'm down there and when I'll need to be back so he can finish them. And a lot about you."

The line moved forward. "What about me?"

"Trying to figure out what it means for he and I now that we're married."

C burst to life on my shoulder. "We have another emergency."

I looked at C. "Another assassin?"

"No. Fase has located the C.H.A.R.A. virus but the trap she made won't work."

Bones looked down at C. "Why not?"

"Because it found a way onto a timeline."


	11. Ep 11 - Reset

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Core Issues: Season Two  
> by Nicolle
> 
> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale. Underfell is a community project. The Shipworks AU belongs to me. This story is copyright to me.
> 
> Special Disclaimers: Error!Sans belongs to Lover of Piggies.
> 
> Shameless Promotion Time! The author Getful on FFnet has written a short fic based on Core Issues titled 'Core Issues Alt.' Go check it out!!!
> 
> 1\. Here it is! The End! And I am taking a short break. There will be a third season of unconnected one shots featuring various characters of the series, but Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon has been waiting for me to play it since February!
> 
> 2\. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence. 
> 
> 3\. As before, if you liked what you read, let me know! Send me a review! Even a simple, 'OMGosh I liked this!' is enough. Hated it? Say so! What didn't you like? 
> 
> 4\. Did you make some fan art? Tell me! I would love to see it! I'm seriously terrible at any kind of drawing so I love seeing everyone else's work. 
> 
> 5\. Derivative works notice: So you want to write something using this fic as a back drop or inspiration? Awesome! Here's the disclaimer you should post with your writing: "This story is based on/inspired by the Core Issues Series by Nicolle." Let me know if you wrote something so I can read it!
> 
> 6\. I have been asked multiple times if I have a patreon. I do not. I do have a Ko-Fi button on my tumblr blog, Baaikha(dot)tumblr(dot)com if you would like to donate. Look for the green "Support My Chai Habit!" button. :D
> 
> 7\. "Can I talk to you?" Yes. Use the PM function. You aren't bothering me and I do not mind. :)

Ep. 11 - Reset

Steam's Frisk, with his bleached hair and perpetually dirty face, sat next to his twin brother Chara. Chara's brown hair was held back by his goggles, red eyes starring at his shoes. Red and Blue sat on Frisk's desk, watching the twins while we waited for everyone to assemble. Cross came in with cups of golden flower tea, which they both very gratefully took. He tossed a bottle of mustard to Red before leaning against the wall next to D. Red's sister came in with her Chara and sat on the floor in front of the desk, Flowey on her shoulder. White joined me at the little table, Fase's hologram sitting in front of us. The rest of our guests for the day waited outside the door.

My Sunflower came in her office, arm bandaged after a quick stop in the lab. She knelt in front of the twins. "What do you remember?"

Chara's face scrunched up, red eyes angry. "One of those idiot Illuminati vampires came into the Shipworks and attacked Dr. Gaster. When Papyrus grabbed the vampire, it was as if he was eaten away." Chara pulled his knees up to his chest and put his head down. 

Frisk put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Sans grabbed us both and teleported us to the Pearl before he went to help the doctor. He was eaten away too."

"What did the vampire do to Dr. Gaster?"

"It was as if he was trying to possess him. There was a point when the doctor screamed and the vampire hit the ground dead. Whatever was in the vampire got into the doctor but..." Frisk trailed off.

"Whatever the vampire wanted out of Dr. Gaster, it was pretty obvious that it didn't find it once he was in there," Chara finished. 

"A Sans as black as the void with red yellow eyes grabbed us after that and dropped us with Techno and Fase," Frisk said.

"How did the C.H.A.R.A. virus get into a vampire from the Shipworks timeline?" G asked.

I flinched. "That's my fault."

Eyes and eye sockets were suddenly on me.

I sighed. "During a fight with vampires on the timeline, I dropped one into the void."

Red and White both snickered.

"*i always wondered where the damn thing came from!"

"*Even so, why use the vampire?" Iris asked from the hall.

"It had nothing else. The only other person in the void was our Exemplar Frisk," I said.

"A Frisk who's a copy!" Fase and Fell Frisk said at the same time. "The virus copied her and left her in the void as a host! And when she was removed, it found the vampire!"

Fell Chara sighed, hand covering his face. "Please stop that. It's really creepy when you and Fase talk at the same time." 

"I was made to host a virus?" The teen stood in the doorway, looking lost. 

Our colony ship Frisk, eyes purple yellow, put her arms around her. "The circumstances of your conception do not determine your worth, child."

Frisk turned back to the twins. "When was your last save?"

"The two days before the vampire showed up," Frisk answered.

Frisk nodded. "Good. When we're ready, I want you to access your save and we'll come in with it." She put her hands on either of the boys shoulders. "It'll be okay. We'll stop it before it even gets to the Shipworks."

The boys nodded, but Chara looked miserable in a way I'd never seen. 

"My brother's workshop is down the hall, if you'd like to visit," I said.

Chara looked at me for a moment before he grabbed his brother's sleeve and they both left the room.

"*who's making up the team, sugar puss?"

Frisk stood and looked over the assembled. "Knowing that the virus can destroy someone on contact, we need a protection against it before we can make a team. Fase?"

"I already have Kevin working on it."

"Kevin?" White smiled. "As in Kevin Mitnick? Sweet zombie Jesus, Fase. You lay some of the dorkiest names on your A.I. children."

The hologram shrugged before disappearing and reappearing in front of Fell Frisk. "Kevin will need your assistance. If adding a magical component helped keep C.H.A.R.A. away from the timelines to start, it is likely that it can help here as well."

"*But what was the little fucker looking for when it took over Gaster?" Iris asked.

"*a way to get onto other timelines," Red answered. "*steam gaster is different from the majority of his counterparts. in his timeline, there wasn't an accident to connect him to the void. he can't travel to other timelines freely. steam uses a midnight collapse badge to travel the void and i'm pretty sure, based on how fast he iced steam, that the virus doesn't know about the badges."

"That puts any Gaster Sans on a team in serious jeopardy." Frisk looked at me when she said it.

"Once we have protections in place, all we need to do is trap the host," Fase said. "C.H.A.R.A. limited itself by entering a physical body. It needs physical contact to enter another one, it takes time. I can map the host's movements on the timeline so we know the original path the host took to Dr. Gaster."

"Does the virus know about save access and reset?" White asked.

"Yes. Which is why the original path is important. It will deviate from that path immediately, but it needs to start in the same place. There are only a very few options it has from that point and I have a new containment unit prepared for it."

"*with that in mind, who is your team?" Blue asked.

She looked around at everyone. "Show of hands, who wants to go?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"Really? Extreme danger, chance of being erased--"

"*Chance to use a cool as fuck ray gun," Iris added.

"Chance for an Indian Jones style chase through a forest or city," White added.

"Chance to fly a steam powered zepplin," our surfer Sans added. His brother pointed at him and nodded.

"Ancient artifacts of astounding power," Fell Chara said. "Guarded by ancient evils in clockwork dungeons. There is nothing about Steam's world that isn't totally worth the danger."

"D? Even you?" Frisk asked. "You hate missions!"

"This is different and I kind of want to see if I turn into a clockwork dragon."

"Dork," Cross snorted. D elbowed him.

Frisk took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay then. It's easier to edit at this point." She pointed at G's Frisk and Iris' Frisk. "You two are staying."

"Oh come on!"

"*No arguments," G and Iris said at the same time. 

She pointed at Monster Frisk. "You're staying too."

"I figured," she said.

After whispering to his wife for a moment, Vivi and Ravie's father said, "We'll stay here with the kids."

"*all right then! what's the plan, sugar blossom?"

"Wait." The teen stepped away from Colony ship Frisk. "Does this mean you're taking me?"

"*of course we are, sweetheart! you're the perfect bait for a trap."

The teen's mouth dropped open. "What?"

Blue nodded. "*the virus made you to be its host and it was a pretty slick move on its part. there aren't many sans-es who would ice a frisk right away and your make up is unique to the void itself. a perfect vessel for the virus. but error put you on a timeline where you would be cared for, before leading bones and frisk to you. while you still contain a part of the void within you, you are your own person with your own life."

"Does that make her Error's Frisk?" Cross asked.

There was a sudden silence.

Blue shook his skull. "*nope. so what's the plan?"

Frisk smiled. "Once Frisk and Fase have protections for us all worked out, we'll have the twins access their save. Blue will take the twins back to the Shipworks and talk to Steam. Hopefully Steam will remember the save access and it won't take that much to prep him. Blue will stay with the twins. Everyone else we'll be splitting into three groups. Red, Frisk, Chara, Flowey, Iris, and D in group one. Myself, Cross, Frisk, and Papyrus will be in group two. Bones, White, G and Sans will be group three. Frisk will be our bait and remain with team one."

Frisk turned to Fase. "Do you have a lead on the host's original point of landing?"

"Yes. The host landed in the underground lair the vampires use in St. Canard the day after the last save on timeline."

"How soon till we have protection from the virus eating us away?"

Fell Frisk looked up from her phone. "Kevin and I are almost finished."

"*How does she do that over a phone?" G asked.

The rest of us shrugged.

"Done."

"The opposite of a burden," Papyrus said with a smile.

She smiled up at him, eyes shining.

"Team one will go to the Shipworks to prep containment with Fase, they will arrive on timeline at the same time as Blue and the twins. Team two will land in the underground lair thirty minutes before the host lands, and will be the first to attempt capture. If the host eludes us, Team three will have the city at large to chase the host down in. Team three will land at the same time as team two."

"*everyone head on over to the equipment room to get prepped," Blue ordered. "*i'll go get the twins." He disappeared from his seat.

As everyone headed down the hall, Frisk grabbed the arm of her older self and whispered into her ear. She nodded, eyes blue pink, and pulled Frisk close, kissing her forehead. 

G elbowed me. "*Frisks." He popped a new lollipop in his mouth. "*Am I right or what?"

"They are something else when they're together. Those two specifically haven't known each other that long, but act like a pair of very close sisters."

"*The kids all love Cross. Every single one. It's like the danger he posed never existed. Can't say I have any complaints though. He's a damn good agent. As good as your wife, though in a different way."

We hit the equipment room and I noticed Frisk looking at her uniform on the shelf, hesitating.

I put an arm around her. "You okay, Babe?"

"Yeah. Just weird how comfortable I feel wearing this uniform." She unbuttoned the viper uniform and slipped into her Seraph Foundation uniform, before arming herself. When we finished, we found Blue in the hall with the twins, both munching on chocolate I recognized as being from my brother's secret stash.

Frisk put her hands on the shoulders of Steam Frisk and Chara. "When you use your save we will follow behind it to our destinations. Blue will get you to the Shipworks and one team will be there to get our containment ready. The rest of us will capture the host vampire and remove them from the timeline. Are you both ready?"

The twins nodded.

"Good." She looked around. "Everyone to your groups. Fase? Give us our equations."

Our phones rang and Fase's voice of creepy doom filled our ears. 

Frisk turned to the twins. "Go ahead."

The twins disappeared with Blue. Each team followed, landing in their designated spots at their designated times. 

I looked at G. "Have you been to Steam's timeline before?"

"*Once. Brought Frisk and Tori. Steam really knows how to show people a good time."

"How are we setting up?" White asked. 

"Two of us on the ground outside the lair entrance, two of us on roof tops for possible chase," I answered.

"I call roof," White said.

"I'll hang with White," Sans said.

"Looks like we get to be in the dirty alley."

G smiled and clacked his lollipop against his teeth. "Works for me."

Sans and White disappeared, leaving G and I right next to the alley entrance. It wasn't long before the team came up with the host bound. 

"*And here she had us placed like she couldn't handle it," G mused.

The vampire's eyes slid back and forth, eyeing us up, snarl evident on it's face.

"Let's get to the Shipworks," Frisk said. "Fase says they're ready."

We headed out toward the street and the host screamed. Despite the late evening setting in, the streets were packed from people in the royal gardens. People rushed us in concern and the host broke free of Papyrus' grip, heading into the crowd coming from the gardens. 

"Shit!" Papyrus moved to run after him and Cross grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait!" Cross yelled. "Everyone pair off to find him!" He ran off into the crowd with Papyrus on his heels.

Frisk and her older self, eyes yellow orange, took off after them. White and Sans disappeared from the roof top while G and I short cut to the middle of the royal gardens. Heading back slowly toward the garden entrance, we swept the grounds carefully for our mark.

We found the vampire's body collapsed in a heap behind a bush. 

"*Fuck. He switched bodies."

I tapped my comm. "C? Babe? The virus has a new host."

C's voice came over the comm. "I was able to get a scan of C.H.A.R.A. when we first caught the host. I'm pretty sure I can track it. Look for someone in the trees."

G immediately opened a rift, pulling through his GBs. "Search the tree tops!" His eye glowed, watching through their eyes. The GBs zeroed in on someone and nabbed them from the tree.

"*Oh no," G groaned.

A GB brought down a young male street urchin, who whimpered at the Gaster Blaster's focused on him. G sighed and waved for them to let the teen go. The teen dropped to his feet and smiled. I summoned a wall of bones to block his escape and he changed direction, dodging my attacks before disappearing in a line of hedges.

"The new host is a teen, male, dressed like he's been living on the streets for a while," I said into the comm.

"Got it!" Frisk answered. 

The host came out of the hedge like a bat out of hell, Sans and White right behind him. They started using short cuts to box him in toward us. A crowd was gathering around the commotion and a the host went for them, touching several people. I could feel the shift in the code as those touched became infected. And turned on us.

"Incoming!" White yelled. He grabbed Sans, short cutting away.

G grabbed my arm and short cut us into a near tree as the ground began to glow a distinct aqua blue. Spears shot up and around the crowd, trapping everyone in place. Steam's Undyne dropped in from a small, gilded helicopter.

She looked up at me, in her gold and purple street uniform, with a big smile. "Looks like you could use some crowd control!"

An infected woman reached out and touched Undyne. 

"No!"

Undyne looked at the infected and laughed before shaking the woman off. "Sorry! But being merely infected is not enough to infect someone else or even hurt me." Her eyes scanned the crowd. "I see the host and he's collapsed." She turned to me as G and I jumped down. "Did I hear correctly over the comms that C can track it?"

C burst to life on my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure I have a bead on him. He's heading for the royal palace."

Undyne nodded, unconcerned.

"I said it's heading for the royal palace."

"I heard you, punk! Your first team landed here a day ago. We've already moved everyone from the palace to a secure location. The palace is empty at current and my Papyrus already has a trap in place." 

I smirked. "That said, we should be on the look out for Princess Asriel?"

Undyne sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure she'll be the death of me."

"What do we do with the infected?" Sans asked.

White looked over the woman who'd grabbed Undyne. "I was unaware it could do this. Can we contain them until we can figure out how to fix them?"

Undyne nodded but frowned deeply. "If the virus keeps this up, we won't have enough places in the world to keep everyone."

"To the palace then," White said.

We beat a quick path to the palace and found Red, Iris, and Steam surrounding a containment field. The new host, a tall man in a dapper brown suit, sat inside. And he looked very unconcerned.

"Oh thank goodness," White said, catching his breath.

Fase appeared on my shoulder, using C's memory core on my jacket. 

The host smiled. "Hello, Frisk." 

Fase stiffened. "Don't call me that."

"Why not? It is your name." The host stood, coming as close to the wall of the containment field it could without touching. "Don't you like your name?"

"Names are for real people, virus."

My hand balled into a fist, but I kept silent.

"Time for you to go home," Fase said.

"To my prison? I don't think so."

A heavy clanking sounded through out the palace gardens. Two massive, clockwork golems stepped through the trees, shaking the ground hard enough that several people hit the dirt. The copper colored one on the left had four arms, each arm ending in a different construction tool: hammer, saw, drill, and rivet gun. The brass colored one on the right stood on three spindly legs, holding up a large white crystal casing topped with a bug head and blue crystal bug eyes. Two clawed arms hung from the head. 

A huge clawed hand slammed down on top of the containment field, destroying the mechanism. The host grabbed a hold of the clawed hand and swung up to the wrist. He saluted Fase as the golem placed him on it's head, between the blue crystal eyes.

"*And now the fun starts!" G yelled, jumping to his feet. He popped a new lollipop in his mouth while running straight for the one on the left. "Hey, Sushi Roll! Throw some spears under their feet to trip them up!"

"Hey, Agent Helvetica! Why don't you watch out so I don't 'accidentally' spear you!"

The ground under the golems glowed a bright aqua blue before the spears shot skyward between the golems legs. The construction golem swung it's arms, knocking the spears to pieces before continuing forward. G ducked the saw arm only to face down the rivet gun arm. He short cut to the back of the golem as Iris teleported directly to the golem's head and shoved the broken end of one of her bones into it's neck, looking to pry the head off.

Steam pulled out an ornate phone from no where and dialed. "*bring in the ''Nova Star.'"

Frisk and the rest of team two came in the palace gates as White, Red, Sans, and I went for the golem on the right. Summoning a huge bone volley, we sent it for the crystal casing that made up the body. It staggered, but the crystal didn't even show a scratch.

"Oh come on!" White growled. 

Red summoned another volley. "*go for the legs! they aren't as strong as the crystal!"

We combined another volley and threw it at the legs. It crashed against the golem like it was nothing.

"*fuck."

A huge airship that looked like a massive battle ship given flight, broke through the clouds, star in the process of exploding painted on the bottom. 

"*everyone back off!" Steam yelled. 

We all short cut back toward the gate as the ship pulled up sideways to let loose cannon fire. The repeated blows to the crystal golem caused it to crack and shatter. As the golem fell, the host hit the ground rolling, came to his feet and disappeared into the hedges of the palace garden. Next to me, G disappeared. A large, black clad ninja appeared and punched the second, causing it to explode. 

I grabbed Frisk and put her under me, protecting her from shrapnel and debris.

"That *gasp* was *gasp* AWESOME!" 

"I told you this place was great!"

I looked over at Cross. He'd pulled our colony ship Frisk underneath him to protect her. They reached out to Frisk and the three fist bumped.

"Can I visit? Seriously, if it's even half as exciting as that every day, I'll be having the time of my life!" Frisk said, eyes a wash of rainbows.

I stood and helped my Sunflower up. "I have yet to have Steam say no."

"*back to the shipworks everyone!" Red called. "*we need to regroup."

"G's not here," Frisk said, looking around.

Cross stood, offering a hand to colony Frisk. "He followed the host."

Iris stood, brushing herself off. "*We can trust him to track it. He's the best of us at it." 

We short cut back to the Shipworks just in time to see the 'Nova Star' come back into the bay. Once the ship was anchored, Steam's twins, Red's little sister, Flowey on her shoulder, her Chara, and our exemplar toting teen came out of the ship.

Steam stood in front of them. "*that was far more fire power than i have the ship prepared for." He leaned in toward his twins. "*did you over clock the cannons?"

Frisk smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his bleached out hair.

Chara frowned. "You're welcome, Sans. Next time you need my brother and I to save your boney ass, you can save it yourself."

Fell Frisk forced herself between Steam and the twins. "We didn't over clock the cannons. Asriel combined a Shocker Breaker with the cannon output."

Steam looked at Flowey, who shrugged. "Not the weirdest weapon combo I've ever been asked to do."

"*and the overly large ninja?"

"That's my Exemplar!" Frisk said, hair swinging as she turned up her nose.

Fell Chara rolled his eyes, his expression identical to his Steam self. "You called for air support and you got it. Just be happy that Frisk and I learned how to use the cannons the last time we were here." He grabbed his Frisk's hoodie and pulled her away from the trio. "Come on, Sunshine. You need to eat and we need a new plan."

"Don't pull too hard! Sans crocheted this one for me!" She hurried after him only to have him sit her down while he dug through his backpack.

Steam shook his head and used a bit of blue magic to round up a bunch of chairs for everyone. Chara handed Frisk a small cooler and she popped it open to dig out a cheese sandwich. 

"*there enough in there for ya, sweetheart?" Red asked.

"Yes. Thank you." She applied a bit of fire magic to the sandwich, turning it into a grilled cheese. She munched while we all sat, and promptly laid down when she was finished, staring up.

My phone vibrated and I pulled it out to check the text. "G says the host is holed up in the underground vampire lair and there are vampires using it again." My phone buzzed again. "It hasn't infected the vampires. It's convinced them to work with it." My phone buzzed one more time. "G's waiting for our plan."

"This is going to be a continuously futile run around unless we can destroy the C.H.A.R.A virus," Cross said. 

Fase appeared on my shoulder. "The virus is persistent. It's changed and grown a significant amount in a very short amount of time. So long as even a piece of it remains somewhere, it will come back."

Fell Frisk lay on her back watching the sky above the open roof of the Shipworks. "To destroy it, we need to put it in a position were it no longer exists."

The white pupils in Blue's eye sockets slid over to look at her, his smile growing. "*how do we do that, buddy?" 

Fell Frisk watched the clouds pass, brown eyes reflecting the fluffy white. She sat up. "Cross' reset."

"What about my reset?"

She looked around, eyes wide with revelation. "Your reset! There are some things that are set in stone on the reset, but the rest is complete potential. It's a timeline where anything can happen, a blank slate. A position in which the C.H.A.R.A. virus no longer exists!"

"What do you need me to do?"

She frowned. "I need you to host the virus and use the reset."

Cross nodded. "All right."

"*Woah! Woah! Woah!" D waved his boney hands in front of his chest while shaking his head. "*I have several problems with this."

Cross nodded toward Fell Frisk. "So do I. And I'm sure Frisk has a few ideas on how to handle them." He turned back to her. "First, can my reset actually handle that? How do I maintain control enough to use the reset after the virus takes control of me?"

"*We agreed. No reset," D said. He slumped in his chair, shoulders falling. "I don't want a different you. And I don't know if I could handle that with any part of my memories intact."

Chara started laughing. 

D's eye sockets narrowed at him. "*What?"

"Oh come on! Do you really think she hasn't thought that through?" He nudged Frisk with his elbow. "Go on."

"We can use Fase's special save to pull you back."

I looked at Fase's hologram. "Can your save do that?"

"I do not know. I've never tried to do it for someone through a full reset." She looked at Blue.

Blue shrugged. "*don't know. you kids are far from memory territory for me."

"Memory territory? What does that mean?" Colony Frisk asked, eyes green purple.

"It's his memory of his time as each specific Sans. All several thousand of us," I explained. "Every time the Prime Frisk reset, it created a whole new set of circumstances and it didn't just reset the prime world. It spun off an entirely new reality. And each reality spun off ones of their own through resets and save accesses as well." 

White picked up where I left off. "Somewhere along the line, Inky came into being, and then we had completely unconnected timelines appearing. But just because Blue lived through most of of our lives with his Frisk doesn't mean that he knows what will happen with all timelines. The decisions he made weren't set in stone for a different timeline. We are free to act outside of them and we have, consistently."

Blue shrugged, smile in place. "*it's been so long since any of you have done anything even remotely recognizable to what i would have done that i gave up trying to make comparisons." 

"*about how long?" Red asked.

"*some time about a millennia ago."

Fell Frisk sighed, eyes closed as her shoulders hunched forward. "Since we don't know if it will work at all, the chance is very slim. We might not be able to pull you back at all." She looked at Cross. "Are you still willing to do this?"

"Yes."

D threw up his hands. "*Papyrus is going to kill me!" He looked at Cross. "Just hurry and come up with a plan before I try to stop you."

Cross nodded.

"Why aren't we trying to save C.H.A.R.A.?" our exemplar toting Frisk asked. "I mean, the Prime Frisk fought really hard to save everyone. Why can't we save it?"

Fase looked utterly defeated. "Because, despite its sentience, it is still code. It was created to destroy me and everything I have ever touched. The virus isn't a person. Like me, it is merely lines of code."

"God dammit, Fase! You are not just lines of code!" I yelled.

White sucked in a breath. "Oh, here it comes..."

"You are a Frisk! You have a soul and your own Determination! Your Father may have created you to destroy the barrier, but you, YOU, are the one who made the Seraph Network! You are the one who connected Prime Alphys phones across time and space! You are the one tracks anomalies! You are the one who fixes them, often at great expense to yourself! You do this! You! You were not programmed for any of those things! You did them on your own! Because YOU ARE A REAL PERSON!"

Fase stared at me for a moment before the hologram on my shoulder became solid. She reached out and her hand touched my skull. 

I sighed. "Stop saying you aren't real, Frisk."

She smiled then.

"*well, that was way less intense than i thought it would be," Red remarked. "*what's our plan, sugar plum?"

Frisk let out a breath. "Here's the plan: Fase will use her save. We'll send a team in to be captured by the vampires and Cross will use that time to convince the virus to enter him."

Papyrus jerked a thumb at Cross. "You think he can do that?"

Frisk looked at her male double. "Yes. Yes he can."

"How do you know the vampires will capture instead of kill?" White asked.

"The virus will want to gloat a bit before the end," Sans said. "The bad guys always do."

Fase returned to her hologram. "My calculations are complete." She looked at Cross. "Once the C.H.A.R.A. virus takes you, you will have thirty seconds to summon your reset and use it." 

Cross nodded.

Fase summoned her save and a glowing green star appeared before her. She touched it and it disappeared in a flash. "Are you ready?"

"Yes. Who's going with me?"

Frisk thought about it. "You pick."

He looked around the group. "Church, Bones." His eyes rested on D. "Sans."

D blinked. "*But I'm terrible at missions."

"You'll be perfect for this one."

D's eye sockets narrowed suspiciously. "Why? What are you going to do?"

"It's better if you don't see it coming."

D sighed.

I pulled out my phone and texted G with the plan. A minute later, my phone vibrated. "G is ready."

Frisk stood. "Let's go."

"Let G know that I will be convincing the virus to take me," Cross said as we headed for the door. 

I nodded.

Cross leaned into Frisk, whispering. 

She nodded and handed him her gun. "Don't be too rough."

"I won't. Just make it look good." He holstered the gun under his jacket.

"Can do."

I put my hands on their shoulders and short cut to the alley. D appeared with us after a moment. 

"Ready?" Frisk asked.

"I hope so," D answered.

I opened the hidden door into the vampire lair. We descended the stairs into a posh room. The damage my GBs had caused had long since been cleaned away and the throne had been removed as well. The room was empty. 

G was suddenly standing next to me. 'Six vampires. They're in the next room,' he signed.

I nodded. I tried the door, turning the knob softly so as not to make it click. I counted to three in my head and burst through the door. The vampires were taken by surprise, but the host only looked amused. I grabbed the nearest vampire, throwing him into another. 

Cross grabbed Frisk, putting the gun to her head. "Stand down, Bones."

That got the host's attention. 

D's face was a mask of betrayal. "Frisk! What are you doing?!" Two vampires grabbed him and pushed him against the wall. 

"Finishing my mission. I wanted to destroy Prime and the C.H.A.R.A. virus will let me do that."

G followed my lead and let the vampires push him to the wall.

The host approached Cross, interested but suspicious. "So what makes you think I could help you? I can't exactly travel the void."

That suave smile and darkly intense look he'd used back when he led Midnight Collapse came to his face. "Obviously I can travel the void. I am the leader of Midnight Collapse. They pulled my Chara from me. With you..." He smirked. "I have the only thing I was missing."

"No! No! How could you lie to me?!"

"Coward!" Frisk hissed.

I waited for the flinch and didn't see it. Cross only smiled.

The host stepped forward and touched Cross' face. He grimaced, but didn't cry out as the virus left the host to consume him. When the host hit the ground, Cross pushed Frisk aside. He summoned his red reset and slammed his fist into it.

Cross and D disappeared.

G and I iced the vampires in one volley. I put an arm around Frisk before grabbing G's arm and short cut us back to the Shipworks. Inside, everyone was quiet, waiting. Asriel had transformed out of his flower form and sat on the floor, holding Red's little sister while she napped. Our exemplar toting Frisk sat with Chara, taking turns playing a video game. Iris sat next to Papyrus. He held her hand while she leaned against his shoulder. Sans talked quietly with White while Red and Blue napped.

They all looked up when we came in.

"Now we're just waiting on Fase," I said.

Speaking of the Frisk, she appeared on my shoulder. "I can pull them back. I need to talk to Blue."

Blue's eye sockets opened. "*see ya at your terminal then." He looked at Frisk and I. "*you two should come along."

I put my arm around Frisk and took us to Fase's solar punk timeline. I landed us in front of Fase's extraordinary terminal. "What's the problem?"

"*if she pulls them back, it will destroy Frisk's reset. his timeline will fall apart. he will never have a chance to go home."

Frisk looked at him. "You knew this would happen."

Blue sighed and looked to the right. "*i remember it. sans and papyrus? well, right now, they aren't doing too well. they don't know what to do with their frisk. if you leave them, they'll pull it together and you'll frisk again. it just won't be the one you knew."

Frisk looked from Blue to Fase. "Pull them back."

"Are you sure?" Fase asked.

Frisk nodded. "Yes."

Fase accessed her save. There was a blinding flash. When the light fell away, Cross, D, and Papyrus stood in front of the terminal, looking confused.

Cross looked around. "Where are we?"

"Fase's terminal," Frisk said. She offered him a hand. He took it and she pulled him into a hug. "Well done."

He hugged her tightly. "It worked."

"Not quite," D said. "I remember seeing Frisk as a child."

I nodded. "You did. I'm not sure how much time passed for you, but it's only been ten minutes for us at most."

Cross let go of Frisk. D and Papyrus looked at Blue for an explanation.

"*welp. here's the thing. fase was able to pull you through, but it destroyed your reset. your timeline is gone for good. the only thing you've got is your save. you can go back to your last save and that's it." He nodded toward my girl. "*i know you've been using frisk's save points and from here on out, that's all you'll have."

Cross nodded.

Blue's white pupils slid back to look at us. "*you'll want to head home then. asriel's got food waiting. i'll head back over to the shipworks to let everyone know." He disappeared.

Papyrus punched his brother in the arm. "THAT'S FOR NOT TELLING ME AHEAD OF TIME, YOU JERK!"

Cross pulled them apart. "Okay, you two, calm down! Time to go home." He stopped and turned to Frisk. "Thanks for trusting me."

Frisk smiled and nodded. I put an arm around her and solved to take us home. We found everyone in the cafeteria, partying loudly over the food. Before I could pull Frisk into the room, Asriel took her hand and pulled her away, talking to her excitedly.

She blinked at him, a soft, hopeful expression on her face. The first time I'd seen that expression was in Waterfall so long ago, when her mission mask fell away, and I finally saw the woman in the photograph that had been my only hope for so long. 

Wonder filled her eyes. "Really?"

Asriel nodded. 

Her breath hitched and she bit her lower lip, torn between laughing and crying. 

Asriel pushed her toward me. "Go on." 

Frisk walked over to me and took my boney hands in hers. The blush on her face spread and I smiled. 

"What it is, Sunflower?"

She put my phalanges on stomach. "You're going to be a dad." 

I hugged Frisk close and spun her around. She laughed, holding on to me tightly even after I set her down. 

"Az says that it very likely happened when we were on Necromancer Sans timeline."

I took her face in my hands. "When. How. They don't matter right now." I pulled her close and smirked. "I took you to the Bone Zone."

She groaned, forehead landing against my sternum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Go back and read the last line of Core Issues chapter one. FULL CIRCLE!!!


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